Story Overview:

“Phaans” (Noose) follows a narrator’s tense and emotionally charged encounter with an old acquaintance who appears deeply troubled and exhausted. The story opens with the narrator feeling a mix of reluctance and obligation as he observes the man’s emptiness and detachment, sensing that something significant is weighing on him. Despite the narrator’s initial disinterest and the acquaintance’s apparent forgetfulness of the past, he is drawn into a conversation that reveals the man’s profound psychological and spiritual turmoil.

The acquaintance invites the narrator to his unexpectedly grand home, where he confesses to being haunted by complex, inescapable problems that have left him in a state of religious confusion and nervous distress. The motif of a stopped watch becomes central, symbolising the man’s feeling of being trapped in time, unable to move forward or find resolution. Their dialogue is punctuated by moments of surreal tension, such as the sudden appearance of a bird (Ababeel) circling the room, which unsettles the narrator but seems routine to the troubled man.

Ultimately, the narrator leaves the house, overwhelmed by a sense of despair and futility. The story ends with him standing in the rain, haunted by the unresolved nature of their meeting and the metaphor of the stopped watch, which echoes the man’s psychological paralysis. “Phaans” explores themes of existential entrapment, the weight of unresolved fears, and the difficulty of genuine human connection in the face of overwhelming inner struggles. (For a more detailed overview, click here.)