Acidity is a cyber novelette written by eccentric Pakistani journalist and writer, Nadeem F. Paracha. Wriiten exclusively for famous South Asian website, chowk.com in 2003, it has gone on to become a controversial cult favourite among many young Pakistanis and Indians.
Plot Written by using various experiemntal writing techniques, such as William S. Burrough's cut-up method and Surreal Automatism, Acidity is basically notes kept by Paracha on post-Cold War politics, society and economics (in India and Pakistan), during his five years as a drug addict and alcoholic. While recovering from his addictions, Paracha spent time rearranging these notes using the cut-up method and surreal automatism. He then turned it all into a work of fiction in which a heroin addict narrates his story set in near future Pakistan and India that have turned into Capitalist and theistic dystopias. He is a traveller who is always moving up and down both the counteries looking for drugs and in the process having hullucinatory dialogues with a Pakistani cleric/Islamic extremist (called in the book as "The Mufti"), a group of Hindu fundamentalists (called "The pundits"), a group of young neo-liberals (refered to as "the fun young people" and the "polite voids"), and an aging Indian Christian (called the "Holy Father"). There are also many other characters, but much of the story revolves around these main charachters as Paracha constructs his dystopia in which capitalism and organizaed religion have been fused togather as a new totalitarian system. Acidity makes a clear comment this way on the rapid economicv, political and social changes taking place in India and Pakistan, especially after the end of the Cold War.
Reaction Acidity drew extreme responses from readers when it first appeared on chowk.com. Some thought it to be a work of ingenious satire, while others thought it to be a work of a crank. However, over the years, it has grown into a cyber cult classic among many young Indians and Pakistanis. But it still gets flack for itself being so extreme while attacking the extremes of capitalism and organized religion. Many of its fans love the use of absurdist and dadaist imagery that Paracha uses, sometimes almost to the point of sounding slapstick in its attempt to create a science-fiction satire on the current happenings taking shape in India and Pakistan.
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