Qurat-ul-ain Haider Has Passed Away

for those urdu speaking people and writers who suffer from inferiority complex, qurat-ul-ain haider was one of those wonderful urdu writers who were a source of pride and could be presented in any international circle. her knowledge of history and her command on literature were impressive.
i was surprised though that some people were nervous to meet her as she was quite outspoken and unnpredictable...a characteristic of many genuinely creative personalities...who like to call a spade a spade.
we will miss her for along time. sohail
ps...i never met her...if any of the readers met her, please share your encounter with her.

I've never heard of her, to be honest.

inna lillaha wa inna 'ilayhi raji'uun.

Oh this is not enough! Someone knowledgeable please write an article worthy of her.

Even wikipedia has the most sketchy description. She also won top literary awards, not mentioned in the article.

May she rest in peace...

drsohail, echo seems to have known her personally. Hopefully he will write something for us.

She was the main reason I learnt to read Urdu. Aag Ka Darya was a much talked about piece during my college days and we had a copy at our house in Urdu. I would love to hear from people who actually met her, and I agree, a more comprehensive obituary is in order

I understand the need to do an obituary, but this really does not do "Annie apa" justice. I guess the need to be news-like like most other news reports that just did two soulless paragraphs is greater than actually talking about the impact she made on us as readers. Chowk istaff, have you actually read anything by her, perhaps you could share some more reflections?

stuka: you need a copy of one of her translated works, unless you can find one in hindi. Check out if any bookstores near you might have River of Fire She did the English transliteration of that one as well. Agar nahin tau mujhe batana. I think you'd like it.

ana, why don't you write something here, or submit it to chowk-would love to read your retrospective.

The Dailytimes has a relatively good piece, calling her Urdu's greatest novelist.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20078\23\story_23-8-2007_pg3_ 1

re #7

neembu: because unfortunately i have read only one piece by her, and as much impact as that had on me a few years ago, I would rather someone wrote it who has read more and is more familiar with her. It's like everyone who when talking about Faiz talks more about Mujhse pehli si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang, when there are more of Faiz's poems that deserve mention. Hopefully that makes sense. I will share a personal reflection from my blog, but that is brief may not do her justice either. Which is why I would like to hear more:

I learn from reading a friend's blog that Qurratulain Haider passed away the previous morning. I am fortunate to have read Aag ka Dariya (River of Fire) in its English translation, and until that time I had never read anything by an Indian writer that was so awe-inspiring in its scope and breadth. I do not own the book, but there was a point where the leap from one era into the next was so seamless, a desi writer and I agreed it was incredible. Ma brought me a novel of hers back from Lahore the last time she was there, but it seemed to disappear into the vortex where many of my lost items have disappeared to, and so I never even had the fortune of reading the only Urdu text I had of hers. Still, I am blessed to have touched and read something that she was a part of. No news I read of her passing can truly touch on what she meant to those of us who have read her fiction.

May she rest in peace and may her memory be eternal.

So let me be the contrarian.

I read her three and half books. The first book was mera bhi sanam khanay. It was short novel and an easy read. She obviously had a great command over Urdu language I believe there aren’t very many Urdu writers with such immaculate command over the language. Akhar Shab kay Humsafar was another book. It was okay there was nothing outstanding about that.

Now I know these fake literary critics would jump on me when I say that Aag ka Darya was actually a very poorly written novel. I was not able to finish it. I think I gave up after I was somewhere half way through and that too after many attempts to finish it. There was a distraction there too. I was in Lahore and was working on a girl for some cordial relationship and the book was my way of getting to her. Until one cordial afternoon she read notice in Urdu as notes. (I hope Urdu newspaper readers would remember those “Tender Notice” that appeared in Urdu papers for govt contract work. She read that as “Tender Notes”. (I must say that there is no discernible difference between "Notice" and "Notes" when written in Urdu.)). That is why I remember aag kaa darya so vividly.

Aag kay darya actually was an attempt to copy master Russian writers like Leo Tolstoy, Gorky and I believe Chekhov. The whole book moved from one giant’s writing style to another style. Now Ms. Haider had a great command over Urdu, why did she choose to copy them is anybody’s guess. We see a clear difference in writing style between Mera Bhi Sanam Khanay and Aag Kay Darya.

Aag Ka Darya was really boring but it did introduce me to Hindu Mythology. The stupidity of Hindu Mythology can only entertain Hindus.

I must say that aag ka Darya must have influenced some as two more Urdu writers tried to copy her style-which was not original as I said earlier- in to two major Books. One was Abdullah Hussain’s Udaas naslain and the other was Shoukat Siddiqui’s Khuda ki Basti. Out of the two, Khuda Ki Basti had some originality it later became a great TV serial.

Naeem of Udass Naslain was a great Character and I still remember parts of the novel. Btw, if someone intends to challenge my Urdu, I must forewarn them that I have also read A R Khatoon and Wajaida Tabasum.


In Pakistani literary circle, Ms. Haider was considered almost a progressive writer. Her resignation after Ayub took over in 1958, made her a legend in the anti army circles in Pakistan. But in the end that was just an excuse for her. She was never happy in Pakistan. She did not have many relatives in Pakistan and some of her closest relatives lived in India and the ayub coup was a good excuse for her to resign and then go to Pundit Nehru to get her Indian citizenship back. She left Pakistan in perhaps '61 or '62 after Pundit Nehru had assured her of Indian citizenship.

I have some more personal stories to tell about my encounters with the Pakistani side of her extended family. One of her granddaughter (not real) almost caused a major fall out between old friends from KU.

Getting back to her books… She wrote a book about her family life, a sort of autobiography. That book was so horrible- intellectually- that progressives ended up disowning her for good. I cannot remember the name of the book. It had all old pictures and stories about her father, mother and other family members and some servants too. It was a good read there is no doubt about it. But it showed how much she loved the feudal and landed gentry of UP. Her family was not big landowners in fact most of them were middleclass (Nuakri paisha loog) but she attempted to make them look like the noblest people, right out of the legendary UPian hubris, bravado, exaggerations and Apni Barai maarna.

God bless her…

Excuse some errors in the post below. Chowk just gives one attempt to fix things.

HP, aren't you always the contrarian anyway?!? :)

Being a fake literary critic (actually I am not one at all!) I am not going to jump on your case when you say AKD was a poorly written novel. Andaz apnay apnay, pasand apnay apnay. . . I shared what I felt because I enjoyed the novel, you did because you did not.

As for the "stupidity" of Hindu mythology in the novel, it kept me glued to it, and I am not a Hindu, nor has my family been for generations. And there are some Pakistanis, among others, who happen to be fascinated by this "stupidity". They do not have to believe it, but it is after all, a kahani. I do not think that Aag ka Dariya was original, but then there are very few novels I think of being that way. It was a just different way of telling a story.

One of the reasons as I tried to say earlier that I did not have much to say about her is because I do not know her enough as a writer. Definitely nothing about her personal life. But reading your post, I have learned just a little more. And of course am reminded of your contrariness - which is by no means original!

And that thing about Tender Notice made me smile - because I do remember that both from the papers we used to get at home when I was a child. Nawa-e-Waqt and The Pakistan Times. :)

ana: aag ka darya etc are available in Hindi. I read it eons ago,as much as that the only thing I remember is that there was someone called Rehan in it.

Rahul, I knew that already. :) I meant if he could find one in Hindi where he is right now. The one character that stays mainly in my memory is Champa, and the reappearance throughout the generations of a Champa.

"Being a fake literary critic (actually I am not one at all!)"

Ana! ana!! ana!!
You were not even in my wildest dream when I wrote "fake critic". That was meant for someone else. Tum ko Apnay baray main koi Khush fahmi ha kiya?

Anyway you did not read the novel in Urdu and I have not read it in English so we are actually talking about two things. Sometimes translation can ace the original.

I stand by my comments about Mythology....Don't care about your criticism because I look at things differently and many people are just lakeer kay fakeer and mostly I am right!
HAHAHA!

This whole thing is messed Up.

Chowk Staff that Back button is not working. Note the Bug!

"are actually talking about two things"
are actually talking about two Different things.