Daryavan De Haani Te Hor Kahaniyan

	Shahzad Aslam

Shahzad Aslam is a well-known punjabi fictionist. His stories can neatly be divided into two categories; symbolic and traditional. Repression, deprivation, class and caste biases, and denial of human dignity are some of the themes we come across in the book. Daryavan de Haani is a traditional narrative that beautifully delineates the lives of our nomads, the wretched of the earth. These ancient rovers have continued to stubbornly exist on the margins. It’s an exploration of a younger generation of nomads struggling to integrate with the urban society that treats them as pariahs. Young nomads subsequent failure appears to be a failure of the so-called civilised society and is also its scathingly damning indictment. The story is powerful and highly readable.