R Kumari: A slice of Josh Malihabadi's life

very curious! what was the purpose of taking Josh into a temple? Ishq to hotel meN laRaaya ja sakta tha?

Re: # 6
Nadia, there is an interesting bit of trivia that I want to share.Altaf Fatima and Naiyer Masud, whom I mention in #4, used to live next to each other in Lucknow and they still exchange letters. Altafs sister Nishat Fatima also was a writer and their uncle Syed Rafiq Hussein was a famous writer of his time.

Re: # 4
Godot, Allow me to suggest Naiyer Masud, the kafka of Lucknow. At least one of his books is available in translation, Essence of Camphor. There would be other untranslated works too, though I am not sure if you will be able to get it in Pakistan.

Re: # 3

Thanks Nadia.

In my last trip to Pakistan, I picked up several of the books you mention, including the entire short-story work of Manto & Ismat Chughtai (I don`t want to keep translating only one or two authors, though.) I`m looking for short stories to translate for Chowk. Novels are too long to translate; even the long short stories are too long. I don`t think most of the Chowkies can stomach more than 8-10 pages of translated work.

I`ve been out of touch with Urdu literature for the longest time and no one in my family in Pakistan has a clue about Urdu literature (if it weren`t for Chowk, I would`ve never picked up Urdu.) Also, what you mention are from the past. Has anything new come out in Urdu literature? How about Altaf Fatima? Has she written any short stories? Any short stories you`d like at read at Chowk, from past or present?

Re: # 1

Thank you so much Nadia.

I`ll be visiting Pakistan soon and will pick up a few Urdu books of short stories. Any recommendations?