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Abbasi, Talat
Born in Lucknow, India, Talat Abbasi spent her
childhood in Karachi, Pakistan, and received her
education in both Pakistan and England. She
moved to New York in 1978 and started work-
ing for the United Nations. Her short stories on
issues of class, sexuality, and gender have been
published in journals, anthologies, and textbooks
internationally. Abbasi’s stories take an insightful
yet subtle approach as she sketches incidents from
everyday life. Even though most of her stories are
set in Karachi, her recent stories are about immi-
grant Pakistanis in New York.
Bitter Gourd and Other Stories (2001) is her
only collection of short stories to date. The 17
stories in the collection, written between 1988
and 2001, are very simple in plot and style. She
takes everyday incidents from the lives of Paki-
stani women and skillfully creates climactic
moments around them. In the first story of the
collection, “Bitter Gourd,” Miss Nilofar visits
Rich Relation every first Friday of each month in
order to collect a monthly remuneration prom-
ised to her mother by Rich Relation’s mother.
There is no proof of such a promise, but neither
Rich Relation nor Miss Nilofar seems to be con-
cerned about the truth. Miss Nilofar comes every
month with the pretense of bringing a gift and
goes back with the money. As the story opens,

Miss Nilofar comes to pay her monthly visit and

waits for the promised money. She has brought

a dish of cooked bitter gourd and leaves it in the

kitchen, knowing full well that no one in that rich

household is interested in her food. Miss Nilo-

far keeps her head high as she collects the money

and leaves Rich Relation’s house for that month

without informing Rich Relation of her mother’s

death. The story has a hidden twist, almost a

satirical one, as readers notice how a seemingly

plain woman exploits her rich relative and learns

to survive in a world which has no respect for a

poor and unmarried woman. In “Granny’s Por-

tion,” Abbasi deals with the issues of poverty in

old age. In the story, children visit a poor relative,

“a granny,” to give her a portion of meat saved for

poor relatives during the Muslim religious festi-

val of Eid-ul-Azha, or “Eid Qurban.” Stories like

“A Piece of Cake,” “Ticketless Riders,” and “Swat-

ting Flies” examine issues of poverty and child

labor. Some of her stories take a different direc-

tion as they move away from simple depictions

toward complex explorations of the issue of gen-

der. In “The Birdman,” for example, a poor young

widow, abused by her in-laws and by her employ-

ers, dreams to build a new life with a handsome

bird seller who eventually sells her to a brothel.

The symbolism in the story is very dark, almost

like that of Sylvia Plath.



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