Aab E Gumm is the name of a railway station on main railway line to Quetta. This place is known for its barren lands and
paucity of water. The word Aab e Gumm literally means "Absence of Water". The title, thus, itself is the explanation of what is the book about.
Its a biography of early days of Pakistan''s independence and the anthropology of migrants who left every thing behind and travelled hundreds of miles to reach Pakistan; on foot, by bullock carts, trucks, and trains". The people had no jobs, food, and shelter in the new homeland. All they had was nostelgic memories of the property, society and lifestyle they had left behind to migrate. These people moved to newly created homeland; Pakistan, with a view that they will have esteem, self respect, freedom and peace of mind and actions. Due to limited resources, the government did provide them the best that was possible but it was peanuts viz-a-viz the millions of migrants that had come in. People, ultimately started realizing that what all they had left was gone forever and they had to start a new life. This produced a new energy in them and they started normalizing in the new society. At this juncture,
author has elaborated the efforts of comon people in the new strife for life and has also mentioned the opportunist cadre who took full advantage of the situation and fooled the poor people as well as the system for their own benefits.
The author has very professionally drawn the picture of the sufferings of those people. He has kept the medium of expression so light and pleasant that one does not lose interest in reading, yet feels the bitterness of the sufferings.
Its a worth reading and worth keeping book and is considered as an asset of Urdu literature of the present era. The author, being a perfectionist, has chosen the most literary
language and like his other books, this book is also considered as piece of art. He has command over the subject, authority over the language and his work is useful for learning/ improving Urdu as a language.