e observes life with the sharp eyes of an investigator and feels it with a poet`s heart. After blending all the experiences with his creative imagination, he comes up with stunningly beautiful stories, like a skille d weaver who loves providing intricate details.

A Punjabi poet, short story writer and novelist, Khalid Mahmood, commonly known as Nain Sukh among the literary circles of Lahore, was born to an agrarian family in the suburbs of Sargodha.

His mother was an avid reader with a passion for Punjabi folklore and classics.

`Gujri Da Qissa` was the first book he read from his mother`s collection when he was in junior school.

`It was a detailed story of a milleseller woman, narrating her problems and the social landscape of `Chint Pura` (worried city) with no regard for simple living and pure natural things like milk,` he vividly recalls.

`It was my first interaction with Punjabi literature that made a lasting impression on me. I read the popular `Qissa Poran Bhagat and `Saiful Malook` during high school days,` he says.

Unlike his other fellows, he would love to spend time with old village folks and his grandparents.

They were amazingly good storytellers and had a great respect for words. They would use word `gall` (story) even for a single word that amused them, he recalls.

He remembers his teenage days when he used to visit Lahore to buy books on religion, history and literature. During that period, he came across socialist litera-ture and the people with various socio-political backgrounds.

In 1987, he moved to Lahore. Following his friends, he opted to study law and now he is a lawyer.

`During professional practice, I came across a variety of hardened criminals and everyone had a story to tell.

They helped me a great deal understand the social fabric of the city, especially of old Lahore, to create fiction,` he says.

His first book of Punjabipoetry `Kikar Tay Angoor` was printed in 1994 by his activist friends, associated with the Punjab Lok Lehr.

`It was well received but after the book went into the press, I realised that it was half-cooked,` he said.

`Theekrian` was his first collection of short stories printed in 2004, dominated by the stories of 1947 Partition of Punjab.

`Though Partition was not my firsthand experience, I met so many people who had suffered. I always felt the pain and agony of the people who were forced to migrate from their habitats,` he says in a gloomy tone.

It led him to a serious study of colonial rulers of India andimperialistic political design to divide the people on religious grounds. This angle is quiet visible in his collection of short stories `Uthal Pathal` published in 2011.

`While writing a dialogue between a `fagir` and `kanjr` for a short story, I conceived the idea of writing a novel in 1995 and started investigating about Lahore.

`After meeting lots of people and collecting a bulk of oral history, I became confused about how to knit all of them to an integrated form until I read `Hageegatul Fugra` in 1999. It solved my problem,` he adds.

Inspired by the format, he started writing the novel, Madhu Lal Hussain, Lahore the Vael` (Tribute to Lahore), which was published early this year.

`It was a tedious job that spans over almost two decades. So many times, I gave up but I felt a strong energy, the energy of Shah Hussain, a legendary poet of Lahore backing me up at the moments of desperation,` he says.

The novel met with appreciation as well as criticism and stirring controversies.

`I receive criticism with an open heart and consider it seriously, but really feel sorry for those who take a work of fiction as my autobiography, he says in a bitter tone.

In most of his works, he shows his comfort and command to play with rich diction. He dares challenge and deconstruct the glory ofcharacters, created by colonial rulers and their heirs in postcolonial establishment.

The way he dissects the British rulers coping with Punjab`s literature of resistance and suppress them by depriving them of their language, differentiate Nain Sukh from his contemporary fiction writers of both Indian and Pakistani Punjab.