Remembering Mushtaq Gazdar Thank you for letting people know about Mushtaq Gazdar. I knew that he is an admirable personality, but didn`t know what to admire about him. Is there any way I can get copies of the films you have mentioned. Would they be available in Rainbow centre perhaps?

Regards

m

Ismat Chughtai’s Autobiography -- A Transalation Hamzad Afaqui #22

1) Great writers exist in the annals of literature. You choose to dwell in wells and ponds. You subscribe to your self righteous empire, passing judgements like some mad emperor.

2)Yes, gigolo and whore would be music to my ears if they were put in a relevant concept like that of Umrao Jaan Ada or The Last American gigolo. Abusing people you haven`t even met yet isn`t music. It`s a baysura maulvi saying the azaan.And when did I claim I was a great writer? Great writers are made by their readers. Chughtai and Rushdie have plenty.

3)I have not read Dozakhi so I do not know about the worm and ant scene. However, writers draw inspiration from life and if she hated her brother, she hated him. She wove her hatred into her novel which is constructive. At least she didn`t kill him like Aurangzeb (who headbanged 5 times a day) had his old and ailing father Shah Jehan executed. I suspect you would do the same.

4)Stop living in the past and come to the present. Chughtai wrote in Urdu and Rushdie has beaten the English at their own language. They are assets and people like you are a liability.

5)Stand by your belief. Retire from reading platforms of free expression and retire to Afghanistan and Kashmir. Your brethren need you. Have I opened your eyes to your true calling in life? Please do let me know.

Till then I remain in hope that you find solace in divine shahadat - Muniba

Ismat Chughtai’s Autobiography -- A Transalation Hamzad Afaqui #19 AND TO WHOEVER IS CONCERN

It is really nice to know that young muslims like yourself call literary giants hookers and gigolos. I personally would rather be a person with a brain than a homo sapien shaped by the mores of society. If you were a good Muslim, you would refrain from calling writers whores and gigolos. Ismat Chughtai is no more and people know about her. People will remember Salman Rushdie too (for writing Midnights Children). They are giants in their fields, fatwas and opinions of fundamentalists like you notwithstanding. If you want to criticise do it, but don`t sling mud and call it being a good Muslim. I don`t know about how pure your belief is, but your language certainly isn`t. Justice will be done. Chughtai and Rushdie will live on on library shelves and you, young foolish man, will be six feet under the ground and then the worms will get you. And I have a strong suspicion that they have already started chewing on your brain.

Ismat Chughtai’s Autobiography -- A Transalation temporal

Thanx for enjoying the piece and for giving me further insight into Ismat. Maybe she didn`t want the world to know that her marriage was as dysfunctional as the world we live in. She was a woman of the East after all. And being one, I know how self-contradictory we can be. But since conflict is the basis of any plot, I guess it helps her as a writer.In my opinion, such marvellous fiction writers should be allowed to lie, because even their lies help send the truth across.

The lines you take an exception to have been taken from ``Meri Aap Beeti``a collection of Ismat Chughtai`s short stories.I translated it as I understood it.And translations always take a lot away from a piece and I know that mine is no different.

Ismat Chughtai’s Autobiography -- A Transalation Hi sac,

Is Lihaf a coming out story? I guess we`ll never know. If Ismat had a female lover, it definitely wasn`t one like Monica Lewinsky. Kiss-and-tell is not nice. Ismat broached the topic of lesbianism, but as the narrator she had little to do with what was happening. It was her aunt and her maid who were at it. Ismat chose to be a child who had no clue of what was going on. However, the tale is in the past tense, which means that she now knows everything that happened under the lihaf.

I personally found Lihaf to extremely poetic prose. It is sensual because the Ismat (as a child just sees the Lihaf contorting and the interaction between two women. She sees what`s happening and she tries to put her finger on it, and now that she finally understands, knowledge has been a long time coming. The process is rather like the sub-continent`s attitude to homosexuality - don`t you think?

Whether her preference was men or women, Ismat was a dynamic, progressive and brilliant writer. her story has far more impact than Deepa Mehta`s film ``Fire`` - for those who care to read.

Regards,

Muniba