December 7th, 2003 by Muhammed Nasrullah Khan
For many nights when I return, late, I’ve found a donkey lying at the dark corner of a dirty street. One front leg is broken and I am sure he cannot move. Always I make a plan to do something for him, but in the morning I forget. Both my own legs are fine and I have to do a lot of work to survive until my front leg is also broken.
There is something more to this donkey: it bears a remarkable resemblance to Hussani Poweley. Who is Hussani Poweley?
Let me tell you the story of that man.
When I learned the first ten numbers of calculations,
I came to know that Hussani Poweley was a human being. Though it is a study of humanities that enable us to recognize Man, in my case it was mathematics, which enabled me to identify Humans.
My father first tested my studies by asking how many animals were in our courtyard. I replied confidently: Nine. “No there are not nine, my son,” my father retaliated with the same confidence. But according to my learning there were nine, and to prove the truth I started counting on my tender fingers: “Two cows, three goats, one mare, one donkey, one dog, and one Hussani Poweley — so that is nine.” Read more of this article »
Posted in Fiction, Pakistan