literary notes: Of charmingly maverick and lovably bizarre companions.

IRFAN Javed has named his new book Aadmi and not insaan. Aadmi is a word that has many connotations in Urdu. Though sometimes it is used to say 'man' or 'male', the word 'aadmi' is derived from 'aadam' (Adam) and it implies that both men and women are 'aadmi' since both are 'children of Adam', so to speak, or 'Ben Adam', an idea very much existent in some eastern languages, too, as 'bani aadam' is used in Persian and Urdu.

'Insaan', on the contrary, is a word that signifies a higher human being, as Ghalib says: 'Aadmi ko bhi muyassar nahin insaan hona', (even mankind cannot be humankind). So 'aadmi' is somewhat imperfect, fallible and prone to err, far from being 'insaan', or the perfect human being.

Urdu's classical poet Nazeer Akberabadi in one of his famous poems has counted different kinds of 'aadmi' or forms that mankind is capable of assuming: pious or sinful, callous or kind, prince or pauper, idle or industrious, you name it. The theme is: people are unpredictable, not only you would find angel-like souls and Satan-like creatures among them, but the good and the evil do exist in the same person and you never know when would an angel could turn into a Satan - or the other way round.

Therefore, the title Aadmi is quite apt as the writer wants to prove that people may be far from being perfect yet among them there are some weird but lovable figures; strange to the point of being idiosyncratic but kind and gifted; nonconformist but talented and consummate. With pen sketches of people who were unusually talented and strange at the same time, Aadmi, a collection of six pen sketches by Irfan Javed, just published by Lahore's Sang-i-Meel, does prove that fact is much stranger than fiction as we come across some very interesting, bohemian and idiosyncratic yet hugely talented and lovable personalities in these sketches.

Irfan Javed is a fiction writer and is always in search of interesting characters that could fit in to a drama or short story of his, giving it a fillip. But he is a restless, globe tottering soul. His job, too, often forces him to pack a bag and leave for another city. During his stays in different Pakistani cities and travels abroad he came across some really peculiar, mystifying, eccentric and wise persons, some of them were undoubtedly genius and, as they often say, genius does not come without a touch of crankiness.

At the same time Irfan Javed seeks wisdom and the tips for the...