Faraz Parvez

Ten Vignettes from a Restless Subcontinent By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA The vignette is a brief flame of a story — it flares, dazzles, and fades before you can name the colour of its light. In the lanes of the Subcontinent, where the past lingers like the scent of old rain and the future hums like wires above crowded bazaars, a thousand stories breathe in every street corner. Today, dear reader, I bring you ten of them . They may be fleeting, but each holds the weight of a novel. 1. The Man at the Railway Bench He wore a white kurta, his beard soaked from the drizzle. The train had left hours ago, yet he sat unmoving. When asked, he said, “I’m waiting for the 1972 express. My wife is on it.” The station master did not tell him that train had been discontinued decades ago. 2. Mangoes in Winter Shazia opened her fridge in Karachi and gasped — mangoes, fresh and golden, lay there. A note rea...

  The Widow Who Lived in the Mirror By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA In the narrow lanes of Lahore’s Mochi Gate , where the houses leaned toward each other like old gossips whispering over steaming cups of chai, there stood a crumbling haveli that everyone avoided after sunset. The windows were always shut. The courtyard always damp. And behind a rusted iron gate covered in jasmine vines, there lived Bibi Rukhsana , a widow who no one had seen in daylight for decades. Children said she was a ghost. Adults said she was cursed. But the truth was stranger — Bibi Rukhsana lived in a mirror . The Mirror in the Haveli The tale began long before most of the city was born. Rukhsana was once a celebrated beauty, married into wealth, her husband a silk trader with ships sailing to Muscat and Zanzibar. One evening, on a trip to Delhi, he returned with a gift — a full-length, Venetian mirror framed in ...

  The Grave That Moves at Night By Faraz Parvez (Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal — Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA) In the far-flung outskirts of Lahore, beyond the crumbling brick walls and the lazy canals where buffaloes swam in the heat, there stood a graveyard the elders called Maqbara-e-Sukoon . “Graveyard of Peace,” they called it — though no one had felt peaceful there in over fifty years. It was said that one grave in Maqbara-e-Sukoon did not stay in its place. By day, it looked like any other — a simple mound of earth, a weather-worn headstone with no name, only the word “Ajeeb” ( strange ) carved crudely into it. But at night, villagers claimed it shifted. Sometimes to the left. Sometimes to the far right of the graveyard. Sometimes it disappeared entirely, only to return by dawn. The elders swore this was no illusion — footprints would appear around it in the morning, as if someone had been pacing. The Dare One hot July evenin...

  🩸 “The Jinn in the Lantern” By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) Part I: The Inheritance In the old walled city of Multan , known for its saints, graves, and cursed air, lived Rehan , a 28-year-old software engineer from Lahore. When his maternal grandmother passed away, he was the only one willing to visit her derelict haveli to claim her belongings. The family had long whispered about that place — that it was haunted, cursed, protected by something older than the jinn themselves. Rehan didn’t believe in tales. He believed in electricity, logic, and clean code. He reached the haveli just before Maghrib. The smell of dust, dried roses, and rusted metal greeted him. In the center of the drawing room stood a single item his grandmother had left for him: A bronze lantern , centuries old. Attached was a parchment: “Do not light it.” Naturally, he lit...

🧠 “The Man Who Forgot His Name” By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) Part I: The Awakening It began on a Thursday — the most forgettable day of the week. Dr. Umar Fawad opened his eyes in his sea-facing apartment in Clifton, Karachi. The sheets were unfamiliar. The room too bright. There was a woman in the kitchen humming an Urdu lullaby he couldn’t name. She walked into the room holding a mug. “Your espresso. Two sugars, like always.” Umar blinked. “Who are you?” Her face stiffened. “Umar, stop joking.” He wasn’t. He walked to the bathroom. The mirror showed a tired man in his early 40s. Deep hazel eyes. Slight greying on the temples. Hands trembling. He examined his wallet: ID card: Dr. Umar Fawad — Consultant Psychiatrist, MindLab Institute. CNIC, driver's license, even credit cards — all confirmed it. But the name meant nothing. Not a flicker of...

  🎭 Absurd One-Act Play #2 "The Interview for Nothing" By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) 💡 What is an Absurd Play? Absurdist plays reflect the strangeness and irrationality of existence , challenging logic and order. Inspired by the likes of Beckett and Ionesco, such plays embrace chaos, circular dialogue, and metaphysical confusion to explore life’s deeper absurdities. 🕰️ Setting: A soundproof, windowless corporate interview room in an unknown Pakistani city. A digital clock on the wall blinks “00:00” eternally. A blinking sign reads: “Applicants must know what they are applying for. No clarifications will be provided.” 🎭 Characters: The Applicant (Man in a Suit With No Resume) The Interview Panel (Three Identical People with Different Voices) The Peon Who Replaces People Randomly HR Robot With a Broken Smile A Revolving Door...

  🎭 Absurd One-Act Play #1 "The Queue That Never Ends" By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) 💡 What is an Absurd Play? For our readers: an absurd play is a theatrical form that defies conventional storytelling. It presents a world that appears illogical, circular, or meaningless — yet holds a mirror to the human condition. Think of life’s most repetitive frustrations and unanswered questions — now imagine them as theater. 🕰️ Setting: A dimly-lit corridor in Lahore’s mythical “Ministry of Unfinished Affairs.” A worn-out sign reads: “Please Wait. Change Is Under Review.” 🎭 Characters: Old Man with a Broken File Young Woman with a Vanishing Token Government Clerk Who Never Blinks Silent Child Who Has Aged Waiting The Queue (yes, the line itself speaks) 📜 Plot Summary: People stand in an endless queue. They've forgotten what the...