Cactus Gas

"Cactus Gas" is a novelette written by controversial Pakistani writer and critic, Nadeem F. Paracha. It was written for famous South Asian website, www.chowk.com in 2004. It was part of a series of short stories and novelettes written by Paracha during his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Starting with his novelette Acidity (Novelette) these stories which also include Gabriel's Bike and Graffiti Christ were all written for chowk.com and are part of his on-going series of social science fiction satirizing organized religion, dogma and capitalism, especially the sort plaguing modern politics and societies of India and Pakistan. Just like Acidity and much of Graffiti Christ, Cactus Gas was also written using experimental writing tools such as Surrealist automatism and the Cut-up technique.

Plot

Cactus Gas is considered to be Paracha’s most bizarre and stark statement on the workings of capitalism and religion in India and Pakistan. However, Cactus Gas is more hostile in its satirical attack on the institution of Feudalism in Pakistan.The story takes place in the year 2040 and revolves around Ranjan a rebellious son of a wealthy and powerful feudal lord. Ranjan rebels against his feudal background and tries to find existential refuge in modern urban surroundings in the cities of India and Pakistan. However, his experiences here convince him that the modern capitalist cities of these countries may not be as restrictive and dogmatic as the people in his village, but the mindset of almost all urbanites is as feudalistic. His pursuit to find meaning beyond old feudal traditions is driven by accusations by some village elders that his father was born from dung(!). Paracha uses the happenings of Ranjan’s quest to find the answers as a way to comment on Islam, Hinduism, capitalism, feudalism and most bizarre of all, the clash between religion and Darwin’s theory of Evolution.

Criticism

Taken from chowk.com …“I remember finding this rather off-putting at first, because the protagonist (Ranjan), comes across to me as being somewhat misogynistic and xenophobic. . . his words certainly come across as such. Words describing this as sick then are really of no surprise because this is a comment on certain segments of our society, and it is sick.

Dung is a metaphor here that Nadeem has built the piece around, rather reflective of his humor. But this piece has a lot to do with identity. The protagonist is constantly in quest of answers in terms of his identity, and he ultimately becomes the identity he is so focused on throughout his life. How much should we focus on one particular identity to the exclusion of all else? This is what I get about this, and what I like about it, a few reads later is that in the exchanges between the various characters, there are critiques/questions on nationalism, ethnocentrism, religion, the feudal system, all these things that are such strong elements of our identity. And of course the non-surprise: Paracha’s continuing references to Coke and Pepsi.

In the releasing of the cactus gas, and the dung, the question arises (pun perhaps intended) does it really matter where we come from . . . it is what we make of ourselves and the life around us that matters. And how do we do that? And the parodying of melodramatic desi movies towards the end is hilarious!"Azaad Katputli, April, 2004 [http://chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00003946&channel=leafyglade%20inn&start=0&end=9&chapter=1&page=1]

See also

*Nadeem F. Paracha
*Acidity (Novelette)
*Graffiti Christ
*God Pulp
*Gabriel's Bike
*Satire
*Surrealist automatism

External links

* [http://nadeemfparacha.googlepages.com/cactusgas Cactus Gas Online]