Mumtaz Hussain, a known artist and filmmaker in New York's South Asian and American art circles, has brought out his first collection of Urdu short stories that explore several issues affecting individual lives and contemporary Pakistani society as a whole.

Entitled "Gol Ainak ke Peeche" (Beyond the Spectacles), the book explores wide-ranging social themes and makes subtle deep inroads into psychology of different characters of almost all classes of the Pakistani society. Hussain, in his own words, paints characters with his imagination but sticks to reality - often callous and cruel.