By Kashaf Ahmad
This month, a thought-provoking literary gathering was held at Kinnaird College for Women, featuring the renowned Pakistani actor, director, academic and writer, Navid Shahzad. With a distinguished career spanning theatre, television, literature, and education, Navid is widely respected as one of the leading voices in Pakistan’s cultural and intellectual landscape, known for her contributions to performance, storytelling, and the development of arts education. The event centred around her latest book, Stalemate: A Chronicle of Love and Despair, and was sponsored by the Farhad Humayun Trust and organized by ICPWE at Kinnaird College.
The event commenced with the Director of ICPWE, Dr. Waseem Anwar, delivering an opening address. He described Stalemate as having “dramatic and poetic profundity,” with poems related to the chronicles of love and despair, narrating not only personal but largely public experiences, that offer a way to survive despair through hope. He referred to Navid as an “influencer” in today’s terminology and an “inimitable inspiration,” praising her contributions across English literature, language, drama, poetry, prose, fiction, and merging all these as arts and humanities. The chronicles in the book, he further commented, were a testament of human will to survive, as extolled in T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and Maya Angelou’s, Still I Rise.
The conversation between the critically-acclaimed author, Faiqa Mansab, with Navid was the raison d’etre of the event. They talked about the country, gender roles, and social issues. One of the questions Faiqa posed was how Navid viewed the state of the country today. In response, Navid expressed optimism about the younger generation, that there remains hope, visible through the diversity in the audience. She further spoke of how there is a strain of gratitude that runs throughout this book and stressed that the people of the world should have “respect for life regardless of the colour of skin, or the country” they belong to. Navid said that the book is a culmination of the lessons life has taught her over the years. “We are profoundly wise creatures,” she reminded the audience, “created by a Divinity we cannot begin to fathom.” We are “grand” creatures, so we mustn’t be “small, prejudiced, angry” people. Navid’s responses reflected wisdom, gratitude, acceptance, and a hopeful vision of a harmonious society.
Discussing the origin of the book’s title, Navid shared that it was her daughter who introduced her to the idea of stalemate, where hope and despair coexist as opposing but equal forces. Faiqa admitted to her admiration for Navid, whom she referred to as an iconic woman who had an “indisputable sense of self,” which women strive to preserve in a society that constantly imposes demands upon them.
In response, Navid reflected on the place of women in history, and said that the first university was built by a Morrocon woman. “The ancient world, more than us, recognized the humanity of women,” she remarked. Navid further emphasized how the idea of justice needed to be practiced by all humanity, for without it, the Pakistani nation was in the danger of remaining locked in an enduring stalemate.
Towards the end, Navid’s reading of selected essays and poems from Stalemate became one of the most memorable moments of the evening, delivered with a quiet command that brought each word into sharp emotional focus. As the session drew to a close, what lingered was not just the intellect of her reflections, but their tenderness; a reminder that literature, at its most powerful, does not simply explain the world, but holds it gently in its complexity.
Header image: Navid Shahzad (Facebook)