Qurrat-ul-AinHaider (January 20, 1926, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh August 21, 2007, NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh) was an Urdu novelistand short story writer, an academic, and a journalist. She was one of the most outstanding literary names in Urduliterature Popularly known as "Ainee Apa" among her friends and admirers, she was the daughter of the famous writer Sajjad Haidar Yaldram, (1880-1943). Her mother Nazr Zahra (who wrote at first as Bint-i-Nazrul Baqar and later as Nazr SajjadHyder) (1894-1967) was also a writer and protegee of Muhammadi Begam and her husband Syed MumtazAli, who published her first novel.
Born on January 20, 1926 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, (though her family were from Nehtaur, UP), Qurrat-ul-AinHyder is one of the most celebrated of Urdu fiction writers. She was named after a notable Iranian poet Qurrat-ul-AinTahira. Qurratul Ain, translated literally means 'eyeball' but is used as a term of endearment. A trend setter in Urdu fiction, she began writing at a time when the novel was yet to take deep roots as a serious genre in the poetry-oriented world of Urduliterature. She instilled in it a new sensibility and brought into its fold strands of thought and imagination hitherto unexplored. She was widely regarded as the "Grande Dame" of Urduliterature.
After graduating from Lucknow University's Isabella Thoburn College, she moved to Pakistan in 1947, then lived in England for some time before finally returning to India in 1960. She lived in Bombay for nearly twenty years before shifting to NOIDA. near New Delhi, where she had been staying till her demise. She never married.
===Literary works===
A prolific writer (she began to write at the young age of 11), her literary works include some 12 novels and novellas, four collections of short stories and has done a significant amount of translation of classics. Her books have been translated into English and other languages.
Aag Ka Duriya (River of Fire), her magnum opus, is a landmark novel that explores the vast sweep of time and history. It tells a story that moves from the fourth century BC to the post-Independence period in India and Pakistan, pausing at the many crucial epochs of history. [Aamer Hussein in [The Times Literary Supplement]] wrote that River of Fire is to Urdu fiction what One Hundred Years of Solitude is to Hispanic literature.
Compared to her exact contemporaries, Milan Kundera and Gabriel Garca Marquez, the breadth of her literary canvas, her vision and insight, transcend time.
Her other books are Patjhar ki Awaz (The Voice of Autumn), 1965; Raushni ki Raftar (The Speed of Light), 1982; the short novel Chaye ke Bagh (Tea Plantations), 1965 (one of four novellas including Dilruba, Sita Haran, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Na Kijo, exploring gender injustice) ; and the family chronicle Kar e Jahan Daraz Hai (The Work of the World Goes On).
She proved her genius, even after Aag Ka Duriya, in that she continually adapted and innovated her literary style to fit in with the theme of her novels. Best acknowledged in her quasi autobiographical work Kaar-e-jahan Daraz Hai. Her later novels Aakhir Shab ke Hamsafar, Gardish e Rang e Chaman and her last novel Chandani Begum are much more accessible and critics have dubbed Gardish e Rang e Chaman as her finest novel.
Amitav Ghosh writes that "hers is one of the most important Indian voices of the twentieth century."
She migrated along with her family members to Pakistan in 1947 at the time of independence, but some years later decided to go back to India, where she had since lived. She worked as a journalist to earn her living but kept publishing short stories, literary translations and novels regularly, by now almost thirty in number.
She was Managing Editor of the magazine Imprint, Bombay (1964-68), and a member of the editorial staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India (1968-75). Her books have been translated into English and other languages. Hyderalso served as a guest lecturer at the universities of California, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Arizona. She was visiting professor at the Urdu Department at Aligarh MuslimUniversity, where her father had earlier been a registrar. She was Professor Emeritus, Khan AbdulGhaffar Khan Chair, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Her first short story, Bi-Chuhiya (Little Miss Mouse), was published in childrens magazine Phool and at the age of nineteen wrote her first novel "Mayray Bhee Sanam khanay".
She received the Jnanpith Award in 1989 for her novel Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar (Travellers Unto the Night). She received the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1967, Soviet Land Nehru Award, 1969, Ghalib Award, 1985. She was conferred Padma Shri by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to Urduliterature, and in 2005 she was conferred the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, for her contribution to UrduLiterature and Education. The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian honor awarded by the Government of India.
Qurratulain Hyder died in a NOIDA hospital, near New Delhi, India on August 21, 2007 after a protracted lung illness. She has been buried in the Jamia Millia Islamia cemetery, New Delhi.
Her death has been condoled by the President and Prime Minister of India, and Chief Minister of her home state Uttar Pradesh.
QamarALi Abbasi Biography! QamarAli Abbasi was born In Amroha, India. At the age of nine he moved to Pakistan along with his parents. He got his early education in Murree Hills then he moved to Hyderabad, Sindh. He completed his higher education at the University of Sindh, receiving his B.A (Hons), M.A (Economics) and M.A (Urdu) from that institution. He joined National College Karachi as Lecturer of Economics. He passed C.P.S.C and joined Radio Pakistan Lahore as Assistant director in 1966. He served Radio Pakistan for 32 years as a station director in Kuzdar, deputy controller and chief editor Ahang Pakistan Calling, controller, station director Radio Pakistan Karachi. After leaving Radio Pakistan he joined Jang publication as an editor of Info Line. In 1999, he moved to the United States and joined the weekly publication Awam as a chef editor. Presently, he is writing daily and weekly columns in Urdu newspapers all over the world which can be accessed through most of the news papers and their web sites. He has written 18 childrens books and 28 travelogues.
Awards He received the prestigious All Pakistan Newspaper award for the best column in 1991 from prime Minister of Pakistan.He received pride of Tamaga-i-Imtiaz in 2000 from the president of Pakistan.He has received many awards from different association and countries for his contributions to the Urduliterature
ISMAT Chughtai (1915-1991), one of Urdu’s most accomplished fiction writers, epitomised the 20th-century women writers of Urdu: enlightened, bold, iconoclastic, progressive and feminist.
Chughtai penned her early pieces in the late 1930s but was not much known in the literary circles until 1942, the year ‘Lihaaf’ was published. Urduliterature of that era showed a marked tendency towards Marxism and Realism. The idea of feminism in its true sense and spirit had not quite arrived in the subcontinent in the 1940s, but much of what she wrote, with a touch of progressivism, was about the social, psychological and sexual problems faced by women. Traditional feminine sensibility of the 18th and 19th centuries demanded women to be virtuous, modest and obedient. Chughtai stressed that real feminine emotions and sensitivities are hardly ever understood in an orthodox, male-dominated society such as India’s. Never before in the history of Urdu fiction were such thoughts expressed so articulately and vividly as did Chughtai in her writings.
In 1942 she emerged on the literary scene with a bang as her short story ‘Lihaaf’ appeared in Adab-i-Latif, a literary magazine published from Lahore. Its central theme was female homosexuality. Themes related to sensuality have never been a rarity in Urduliterature, especially in classical poetry, and a few Urdu masnavis (longish poems, often narrating a romance) are known for being too explicit. Male homosexuality had not been a taboo subject in Urdu poetry but somehow female homosexuality was not approved of, except for rekhti, a genre of classical Urdu poetry that depicted female homosexuality, mostly in implicit and symbolic terms. In the subcontinent’s conservativesociety these covert and occasionally overt expressions of sensuality were thought to be offensive but were quietly smiled upon.
‘Lihaaf’ sent tremors across the subcontinent and Chughtai had to bear with scathing criticism for it. ‘Lihaaf’ is about two women, one of whom is deprived of her husband’s love and the other is the maid servant. It is strange that ‘Chai ki pyali’, Muhammad Hasan Askari’s short story that had covert gestures to female homosexuality, published in the January 1942 issue of Adabi Duniya (Lahore), and later included in the collection of his short stories titled Jazeeray, did not invoke as much criticism as did ‘Lihaaf’; neither did rekhtis written by the male poets. In fact, Askari’s story was not taken much notice of, for reasons not known. On the contrary, Chughtai’s story was considered more offensive, perhaps because of her gender. ‘Lihaaf’ brought Chughtai much notoriety and she was even summoned by a court for the alleged ‘obscenity’. Ironically, it was exactly this kind of attitude of a male-dominated society that Chughtai used to scoff at.
Many of Chughtai’s short stories revolve around the odds faced by women. Oppressed women fighting it out on their own fascinated Chughtai. In most of her short stories she points a finger at society for unjust treatment of women. Though she did write about the problems of women from underprivileged classes too, it was women from middle-class families she was truly interested in portraying. Describing UP’s middle or lower middle-class Muslim women and homes in a parlance peculiar to the milieu was her forte. Here, Chughtai excelled, since it was the environment she was brought up in and had personal experience of.
But Chughtai’s exposure to trade unionism and political activism, unlike RashidJahan, a progressive female writer and a contemporary of Chughtai’s, was rather limited. She could possibly not have been as well-versed in Marxist philosophy either, as some of her contemporary progressives were. This is one of the reasons why she, at times, sounds shallow when she tries her hand at depicting economic issues at length. Considering her leftist leanings and close association with the Progressive Writers Association, her short stories, based purely on class conflict and Marxist themes, are not as many as one would have expected.
Chughtai’s flowing and spontaneous style, occasionally peppered with satirical or witty remarks, makes reading a delight. Writing idiomatic and colloquial Urdu in a seemingly effortless manner is something she is known for. Her mastery over presenting women’s parlance or expressions peculiar to native speakers of Urdu, especially women from UP, is a domain in which Chughtai is unrivalled by any male or female fiction writer. In this regard, only Qurratulain Hyder is a close second, but that too only occasionally.
This indeed can be traced to the locale in which Chughtai grew up. She was born on Aug 21, 1915, in Badaun, UP, but Agra was her ancestral hometown (her date of birth is often quoted as Aug 15 and place of birth as Agra, but, according to some researchers, Aug 21 and Badaun are more likely to be correct). She was brought up in Jodhpur, Agra and Aligarh since her father, a civil servant, was posted at different places and the family had to move quite often. From among her nine siblings, wrote Chughtai in Naqoosh (Lahore) describing her early life, her elder sisters got married when Chughtai was quite young and she spent more time in her childhood playing in the company of her brothers. This, according to her own account, turned her into a girl fond of playing hockey, football and gilli danda. In other words, she had become a tomboy, which was quite shocking to some women of Agra where the family had moved after her father’s retirement. It was equally embarrassing for her mother, wrote Chughtai, but the “culprits were my brothers”. This formative phase played a role in carving out her personality, which was marked with boldness, courage and outspokenness.
Despite fierce resistance from some of her relatives, Chughtai did her BA in 1938 from Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow, and obtained a degree in teacher training from Aligarh the next year. In 1941, she was appointed the superintendent of Municipal Girls School, Bombay (now Mumbai). She married ShahidLateef, a film director and scriptwriter from Mumbai, in 1942. By the time Chughtai began writing, her brother Mirza Azeem Baig Chughtai (1895-1941) had become an established novelist and humorist of Urdu. Though her brother had an influence on her, she was most inspired by RashidJahan and Saadat Hasan Manto. The other influence was, of course, some Western writers such as Sigmund Freud, G.B. Shaw and D.H. Lawrence. Later, she settled in Bombay and wrote dialogues for movies as well as scripts for movies in collaboration with her husband.
With a number of collections of short stories to her credit, such as ‘Kalyaan’, ‘Choten’, ‘Do haath’, ‘Aik baat’ ‘Chhui mui’ and ‘Thori si pagal’, Chughtai is ranked among Urdu’s most influential short-story writers of the latter half of the 20th century but she was not as successful in novels. Her novel Terhi Lakeer is, indeed, counted among the best Urdu novels, but her other novels, such as Ziddi, Masooma, Saudai and Dil Ki Dunya, could not impress the critics much, though they are not without their own merits.
Some of her other books, such as Dauzakh, are collections of plays, short stories and essays. In plays, too, Chughtai could not make her mark and her plays can pose some difficulties to those who want to stage them. According to Patras Bokhari, the famous humorist who was a fine connoisseur of drama too, she simply did not know how to separate scenes and acts. Yahan Se Wahan Tak includes miscellany, such as her brief memoirs, an account of her journey to Pakistan in 1976, and a few short stories. But Dauzkhi, her pen-sketch of her brother Azeem Baig, written a few days after his death, is one of the best pen-sketches ever written in Urdu. It is humorous and saddening, sentimental and analytical, all at the same time.
Chughtai died in Mumbai on Oct 24, 1991. But controversy chased the writer even after her death: she was cremated, which, according to some relatives of hers, was her will. But some contradicted this and it remains a mystery what her real will was. Chughtai is relevant even today. No study of the Urdu short story, feminism in Urduliterature or Progressive philosophy in Urduliterature can truly be called complete unless her works are taken into account.
Ismat Chughtai (15 August. 1915 24 October, 1991) was an eminentIndianUrdu writer, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feministic views.
She was considered the grand dame of Urdu fiction, as one of the four pillars of modern Urdu short story, the other three being Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, and Rajinder Singh Bedi.
Her outspoken and controversial style of writing made her the passionate voice for the unheard, and she has become an inspiration for the younger generation of writers, readers and intellectuals.
She was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh and grew up largely in Jodhpur where her father was a civil servant. She was ninth of ten children (six brothers, four sisters), and since her older sisters got married while Ismat was very young, the better part of her childhood was spent in the company of her brothers, a factor which she admits contributed greatly to the frankness in her nature and writing.
Her brother, MirzaAzim Beg Chughtai, already an established writer, when Ismat was still in her teens, was her first teacher and mentor.
In 1936, still working on her bachelors degree, she attended the first meeting of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow. After her B.A., Ismat worked for a B.T. (a Bachelors in Education), thus becoming the first IndianMuslim woman to have earned both degrees. In this period she started writing in secret.
While she was still in college, her first short story Fasaadi (The Troublemaker) was published in Saqi, a prestigious literary magazine.
From 1939-41, she taught at the Raj Mahal Girls' School in Jodhpur and, later, in Bombay, she became Inspector of Schools. She also worked in Aligarh for a time. Here she met ShaheedLatif, who was at the time working on his Masters degree. The two developed a close friendship, and later they were married in 1941, and had two daughters.
In 1941, just two months before her marriage, her short story "The Quilt" ("Lihaaf" in Urdu) which dealt with xxxxxxxism, and the needs of a woman in cloistered household, established her as a fierce writer and a feminist. It also lead to her being charged with obscenity by then government. Though she was later acquitted when her lawyer successfully argued that the story could not be a corrupting influence because the subject would only be understood by someone who has had a xxxxxxx experience.
In 1943 she completely took to writing as a career.
Through her short stories, novels and political essays, Ismat's work stands for the birth of a revolutionary feminist politics and aesthetics in twentieth century Urduliterature. She was found company amongst writers likeRashidJahan, Wajeda Tabassum and Qurratulain Hyder.
She explored feminine sexuality, middle-class gentility, and other evolving conflicts in the modern Muslim world. She was briefly associated with the membership of the Urdu Progressive Writer's Movement in Lucknow. She is considered one of the more prolific writers of Urdu short stories.
In collaboration with her husband, ShaheedLatif, Ismat wrote twelve film scripts, and made five films independently. She appeared in Shyam Benegal's 1978 film Junoon for which she also wrote the dialogues. She won the 1975 Filmfare Award for Best Story in Garam Hawa.
She won the 1974 Ghalib Award for Urdu Drama.Terhi Lakeer (translated into English as The Crooked Line by Tahira Naqvi) is considered her best novel. The ups and down of the life of its heroine Shaman can be compared to those of the author.
She was awarded the Samman Award for Urduliterature in 1990. She died in Bombay in 1991 and was cremated according to her wishes.
Her autobiography is entitled "Kaghazi Hai Pairahan" (Paper-thin is the apparel).
Ismat Chughtai is considered a path breaker for women writers in the subcontinent, as the many women writing at the time of Ismat's birth and childhood - including, notably, Muhammasdi Begum, Sughra Humayun Mirza, Tyaba Bilgrami (to whose novel Anwari Begum Chughtai refers in Terhi Lakeer), and Khatun Akram, were considered to be too caught up in the ideology of slow, conservative and religiously sanctioned changes for women advocated by such male reformers as MumtazAli, Rashidul Khairi and Shaikh Abdullah. However, in Ismat's formative years, Nazar SajjadHyder had established herself an independent feminist voice, and the short stories of two very different women, HijabImtiazAli and the Progressive Dr Rashid Jehan were also a significant early influence on Ismat. (See Aamer Hussein's article, Forcing Silence to Speak, on early women writers in the AUS online).
A Chughtai Collection, Sama Publishing, 2005. ISBN 969-8784-16-0.
Lifting the Veil, Penguin, 2001
The Heart Breaks Free/The Wild One, South Asia Books, 1993..
My Friend My Enemy: Essays, Reminiscences, Portraits, New Delhi, Kali for Women, 2001.
Quilt and Other Stories, New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1996
Terhi Lakhir (The Crooked Line), New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1995
Ibn-e-Insha (Punjabi, Urdu: ابن انشا) born Sher Muhammad Khan (Punjabi, Urdu: شیر محمد خان) on 15 June 1927, died on 11 January 1978, was a PakistaniUrdu poet, humorist, travelogue writer and newspaper columnist. Along with his poetry, he was regarded as one of the best humorists of Urdu. His poetry has a distinctive diction laced with language reminiscent of AmirKhusro in its use of words and construction that is usually heard in the more earthy dialects of the Hindi-Urducomplex of languages, and his forms and poetic style is an influence on generations of young poets.
Insha was born in Phillaur tehsil of Jalandhar District, Punjab, India. His father hailed from Rajasthan. In 1946, he received his B.A. degree from Punjab University and subsequently, his M.A. from University of Karachi in 1953. He was associated with various governmental services including Radio Pakistan, the Ministry of Culture and the National BookCentre of Pakistan. He also served the UN for some time and this enabled him to visit many places, all of which served to inspire the travelogues he would then pen. Some of the places he visited include Japan, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, France, UK and the United States. His teachers included Habibullah Ghazenfar Amrohvi, Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Khan and Dr. Abdul Qayyum. In the late 1940s, in his youth years, Ibn-e-Insha had also lived together with the renowned film poet Sahir Ludhianvi in Lahore for a short period. He was also active in the Progressive Writers Movement. Ibn-e-Insha spent the remainder of his life in Karachi before he died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma on 11 January 1978, while he was in London. He was later buried in Karachi, Pakistan.
Insha is considered to be one of the best poets and writers of his generation. His most famousghazalInsha Ji Utthoo Ab Kooch Karo (Rise oh Insha Ji, and let us set off ) is an influential classic ghazal. Ibn-e-Insha had written several travelogues, showcasing his sense of humor and his work has been appreciated by both Urdu writers and critics. He also translated a collection of Chinese poems into Urdu in 1960. crazy guy
Awards and recognition
Ibn-e-Insha was awarded the Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1978.
Wasif Ali Wasif (R.A) (15 January 1929 – 18 January 1993), a Saint of modern era from Pakistan, well known as educationist, writer, poet, reformer and a mystic intellectual. He was famous for his unique literary style. He used to write short pieces of prose on topics like love, life, fortune, fear, hope, expectation, promise, prayer, happiness, sorrow and so on. Many M Phil and PhD theses have been conducted in various Universities of Pakistan on his life and work,. In one of the theses he is stated as Reformist of Pakistan مصلحِ پاکستان . As a reformist his work in awakening the nation is considered in continuum with Iqbal.
He wrote regular essays, commonly referred as columns, on weekly basis, in PakistaniUrdu newspaper Daily Nawa-i-Waqtنوائے وقت His first ever column entitled “Muhabbat” (love) published in 1984 in literature section of Nawa-i-Waqt, bewildered many in literary circles. In his life, most of his columns were compiledin the forms ofbooks, with his own selected titles, DIL DARYA SAMANDER دل دریا سمندر and QATRA QATRA QALZA قطرہ قطرہ قلزم. and HARF HARF HAQEEQAT حرف حرف حقیقت. Probably no contemporary Urdu writer is more cited in quotations than he is. His aphoristic style of writing has become proverbial and a bench mark in Urduliterature, commonly termed as Wasifian Style of prose writing. His is considered a founder of a new thought system called WASFIYAAT واصفیات, a blend of mystic wisdom, ethics and patriotism. He has beautifully amalgamated Pakistanism with mysticism. His Mystic teachings, taking roots directly from Shariah ( Quran and Hadees) represent the inner core and real essence of Islam. He got a gifted art of creating a rainbow of meanings with the help of very few droplets of words. He may be considered the pioneer of aphorism in Urduliterature.
“His poetic work is available in Urdu and Punjabi languages. His poetry bears classical notes of Sufi traditions. His Eulogy نعتیہ کلام is worth mentioning as it harbours specific notes of Love for HolyProphet ﷺas well as pray for Pakistan; and it has become increasingly popular.”
He used to conduct question-answer sessions محفل گفتگو in specially arranged gatherings at Lahore attended by the notable community of intellectual, writers and seekers of truth from various walks of life. Luckily most of these sessions were recorded in audio and transcriptions of these sessions were later as Guftagoo (گفتگو) series. His mehfils never had a pre-set subject nor did he ever delivered sermons on a chosen topics. His way was to ask people if they had any question; and then he used to respond to these quarries and curiosities in his highly original style. He mastered in resolving paradoxes of intellect, thought and beliefs. There are more than 40 books to his credit including prose, poetry and transcripts of his dialogue. His books as well as recordings of talks are a treasure house of wisdom and an ultimate shelter of seekers of truths.
Umera Ahmed is a best selling Pakistani author of over a dozen Urdu popular fiction novels. She has won numerous best writer awards from some of the most
prestigious media houses and organizations in Pakistan. Her most celebrated workis Pir-e-Kamil (The Perfect Mentor), which she dedicated to Muhammad. She is most known for her unorthodox approach towards some very sensitive issues in Pakistanisociety that deal with both the religion and culture of the country. Umera Ahmed was born on December 10, 1976 in Gujranwala, Pakistan. She completed her master’s degree in EnglishLiterature from Murray College, Sialkot, the same college that produced one of the most celebrated and gifted scholars and poets of 21st century, Allama MuhammadIqbal. Umera Ahmed started writing from a very early age, while still at college. She describes the primary reason of writing her first novel as ‘to better [her] hand writing’. That first novel, Zindagi Gulzar Hai, was published in a women monthly digest, Khawateen in 1998. The novel gained instant popularity within the digest readership. The female protagonist, Kashaf, was depicted as a plain looking, bright and hardworking student who is battling acute financial hardship in her personal life. Her father had taken up a second wife when her mother failed to produce a son, and later left his first wife and three daughters on their own. The story dealt with some powerful themes and contained a message that launched Umera Ahmed as a visionary writer. Her later works cemented this early diagnosis of her talent. Before taking up writing full-time, she also taught at Army Public College, Sialkot’s Cambridge wing . During that time, she continued writing for Khawateen and Shua, two of the most prominent monthly digests in Pakistan. Her stories like Meri Zaat Zarra-e-Benishan, ImaanUmeed aur Mohabbat, Amar Bail, Haasil, and La Haasil, gave her a distinct position among her peers. In popular fiction genre, an area dominated by female writers, Umera Ahmed emerged as the radical who had her own views on everything, and she used her writing to convey those views to the masses. Faced with initial criticism over her depictions of role of women in society, the nonconformist approach her female protagonists always take, and her own insistence of writing on some very sensitive topics in Pakistanisociety, she did start gaining loyal following and readership eventually.
Though she enjoyed success and recognition from the very start of her career, it was her 2004 bestselling novel, Peer e Kamil that launched her as one of the most successful and influential writers of this era in Pakistan. This novel is alsoresponsible for making her a household name not only in Pakistan, but overseas too, wherever Urdu is spoken. In 2005, she also won her first best writer award for her serial Wujood-e-Laraib, an original screenplay for Indus Vision .
In 2006, she won the TV One popular Choice award for The Best Young Talent in Scriptwriting (confirm from Umera the list of her awards). In 2007, she went to England for her enrollment in a few creative writing and scriptwriting courses at Arvon Foundation’s Totleigh Barton Centre. She then proceeded to write Man-o-Salwa, another one of her trademark literary work that further elevated her among her peers. Her most recent novel, Aks,deals with the horror and stigma of sexual abuse against children and how the demons of past can haunt the most strongest of us, and how they can be dealt with. --Writing for TV—Sakina Samoo, a prominent TV actress was among the early fans of Umera Ahmed’s works. For her directorial debut in 2004, Sakina Samoo asked Umera Ahmed to write the script for her first drama serial. Thus, Wujood e Laraib got aired on Vision and earned many awards, including best writer for Umera Ahmed. She then proceeded to adopt her novel, Darbar e Dil into a telefilm, and a play of the same name aired on PTV in the same year, for channel’s drama festival . Between, 2006 and 2009, Umera continued writing many original screenplays as well as adaptations of her novels into dramas and telefilms for TV. These projects included Amar Bail, Wapsi, Thoda Sa Aasman, Malal, La Haasil, Man-o-Salwa, and Doraha. Man o Salwa got Lux Style Awards’ best serial award for 2006. Her novel turned drama Thoda Sa Aasman earned her the best serial award in Lux Style Award in 2007. She again received a best serial award for Malaal in 2009 and the best writer Pakistan Media Award for Malaal in 2010. She describes scriptwriting not as nearly enjoyable as writing novels . Despite this, her novel-turned-drama serial Meri Zaat Zarra e Be Nishan proved to be the most popular drama serial of the year and earned her another best writer Lux Style Award in 2011. Her 2013 project, another novel-turned-drama serial Zindagi Gulzar Hai, topped the charts with each passing episode and the finale of the drama set new rating records when it earned a whopping 9.5 TRP.
Personal Life Umera Ahmed enjoys a closely guarded private life and seldom gives interviews. Her only appearance onscreen was on the stage of Indus Vision awards to collect her first Best Writer Award in 2005. Despite being active on social media, and involved in showbiz, she leads a private life. Umera Ahmed feels quite strongly about children literacy in Pakistan, and her concerns over the fact that younger children in Pakistan are rapidly losing interest in reading as a hobby, she has launched UA Books, a content development publishing house which works towards reviving the love of books among children once again. The publishing house also offers self-publishing and online bookstore facilities.
استاد دامن ایک عجیب و غریب شخصیت تھے۔ وہ تھے تو پنجابی کے عوامی شاعر لیکن ایسے شاعر جن کا ان کی زندگی میں کبھی کوئی شعری مجموعہ شائع نہیں ہوا۔ جب کبھی ان سے استفسار کیا جاتا کہ وہ شعری مجموعہ کیوں نہیں شائع کراتے تو ان کا جواب ہوتا ’’جب میرا کلام عوام کو زبانی یاد ہے تو پھر مجھے شعری مجموعہ چھپوانے کی کیا ضرورت ہے۔‘‘ چار ستمبر 1911ء کو لاہور میں جنم لینے والے استاد دامن کا اصل نام چراغ دین تھا۔ 1947ء میں تقسیم ہند کے وقت وہ پنجابی کے سب سے مشہور شاعر تھے۔ انہوں نے کیا شعر کہا تھا ایہہ دُنیا منڈی پیسے دی، ہر چیز وکِندی بھا سجنا ایتھے روندے چہرے وکدے نئیں، ہسنے دی عادت پا سجنا انہوں نے پاکستان میں ہمیشہ فوجی آمریت کی مخالفت کی۔ انہیں سیاست میں میاں افتخارالدین لائے جو بائیں بازو کے معروف رہنما اور تحریکِ پاکستان کے کارکن تھے۔ استاد دامن کو اصل میں برطانوی راج کے خلاف جدوجہد کے حوالے سے متعارف کرایا گیا۔ استاد دامن پیشے کے اعتبار سے درزی تھے۔ 1930ء میں انہوں نے میاں افتخارالدین کا ایک سوٹ تیار کیا جو ان کی شاعری سن کر بڑے متاثر ہوئے۔ انہوں نے استاد دامن کو دعوت دی کہ وہ انڈین نیشنل کانگریس کے زیراہتمام جلسے میں اپنی نظم پڑھیں۔ جب استاد دامن نے نظم پڑھ کر سنائی تو ان کے نام کا ڈنکا ہر طرف بجنے لگا۔ پنڈت جواہر لعل نہرو اس جلسے میں موجود تھے۔ انہوں نے استاد دامن کی انقلابی اور سامراج کے خلاف نظم سن کر انہیں ’’شاعرِ آزادی‘‘ قرار دیا۔ 1947ء کے فسادات میں استاد دامن کی دکان اور گھر کو فسادیوں نے نذرِ آتش کر دیا۔ ان کی اہلیہ اور جوان بیٹی کو بھی موت کی نیند سلا دیا۔ تاہم استاد دامن نے لاہور میں ہی قیام پذیر ہونے کا فیصلہ کر لیا۔ وہ تمام زندگی آمریت، منافقت اور کرپشن سے نفرت کرتے رہے۔ یہاں اس بات کا تذکرہ ضروری ہے کہ ان کی وفات کے بعد ان کے مداحین نے ان کا شعری مجموعہ ’’دامن دے موتی‘‘ شائع کیا۔ ان کی نظموں کا آج بھی پنجاب کے مختلف علاقوں میں حوالہ دیا جاتا ہے۔ وہ پہلے ’’ہمدم‘‘ کے قلمی نام سے لکھتے رہے۔ یہ قلمی نام بعدازاں ’’دامن‘‘ ہو گیا۔ استاد کا خطاب انہیں مقامی لوگوں نے دیا۔ اس کے بعد استاد دامن سیاسی اور عوامی جلسوں میں باقاعدگی سے شرکت کرنے لگے۔ وہ اکثر اس رائے کا اظہار کرتے رہتے تھے کہ جدوجہدِ آزادی اس وقت تک کامیابی سے ہمکنار نہیں ہو سکتی جب تک ہندو، مسلمان اور سکھوں میں اتحاد نہیں ہو جاتا۔ ذوالفقار علی بھٹو کے دورِ حکومت میں انہوں نے ایک نظم لکھی جس پر انہیں گرفتار کر لیا گیا۔ ان کی مقبولیت کی سب سے بڑی وجہ یہ تھی کہ وہ عوام کے جذبات انہی کی زبان میں بیان کرتے تھے۔ یہی وجہ تھی کہ وہ عوامی شاعر کہلائے۔ اس کے علاوہ وہ رجائیت پسند تھے اور انہوں نے اپنے مداحین کو کبھی یاسیت اور قنوطیت کی دلدل میں نہیں دھکیلا۔ ذرا ان کی یہ شاعری ملاحظہ کیجیے۔ ساڈے ہتھاں دیاں ریکھاں پراں نال میٹن والیو اوئے موئیاں ہویا دیاں صفاں ولیٹن والیو کر لو کوٹھیاں وچ چاننا کھو کے ساڈیاں اکھیاں دا نور ایتھے انقلاب آئے گا ضرور سانوں کوئی شکست نہیں دے سکدا بھانویں کوئی کڈا دم خم نکلے استاد دامن دے گھر ویکھیا جے دو ریوالور تے تن دستی بم نکلے استاددامن نے پنجاب اور پنجابی زبان سے اپنی محبت کا اظہار بھی بڑے واضح انداز میں کیا ہے۔ وہ کہتے ہیں میں پنجابی پنجاب دے رہن والا سدا خیر پنجابی دی منگ دا ہاں موتی کسے سہاگن دی نتھ دا ہاں ٹُکڑا کسے پنجابن دی ونگ دا ہاں اس کے بعد وہ اس بات کا بھی اظہار کرتے ہیں کہ وہ اردو اور انگریزی کے دشمن نہیں لیکن ان کی منہ بولی زبان پنجابی کی اہمیت کو بھی تسلیم کیا جائے۔ وہ کہتے ہیں اردو دا میں دوکھی ناہیں تے دشمن نہیں انگریزی دا پچھدے او میرے دل دی بولی ہاں جی ہاں، پنجابی اے بلھا ملیا ایسے وچوں ایسے وچوں وارث وی دھاراں ملیاں ایسے وچوں میری ماں پنجابی اے اب زندگی کے بارے میں وہ کیا کہتے ہیں زندگی کیہ اے پتن سیاپیاں دی روندے آئے ساں پٹ دے گزر چلے خون جگر دا تلی تے رکھ کے تے دھرتی پوچدے پوچدے گزر چلے ایتھے کیویں گزارئیے زندگی نوں ایہو سوچدے سوچدے گزر چلے اب ذرا مندرجہ ذیل شعروں کو دیکھیں جہاں وہ دلیل سے کہتے ہیں کہ کم عقلوں اور نادانوں کو اپنے اشعار سنانا بالکل بے سود ہے۔ کم عقلی تے تیری کوئی شک نہیں دانش جاہلاں نوں پیا وار ناں دامنؔ شعر سناؤنا ایں مورکھاں نوں موتی پتھراں تے پیا وار ناں ایں استاد دامن فطری حقائق کا بہت ادراک رکھتے تھے اور انسانی فطرت کے گوشے بھی بے نقاب کرتے تھے۔ ان کی یہ شاعری ملاحظہ کریں لا غرض اگے غرض پیش کر کے انھّے اگے مورکھا رون لگا ایں آئی جوانی گئی جوانی جیون بدلاں دی چھاں بھاویں رہی ایہہ چار دیہاڑے ناں دی پھلے ناں کسے غیر نے مینوں ماریا نہیں جنھے ماریا یار بن کے جنہوں کلی گلاب سمجھیا ساں اوہ ساہمنے آیا تلوار بن کے استاد دامن حبیب جالب کو اپنا ’’اردو ایڈیشن‘‘ کہتے تھے۔ وہ کہتے تھے وہ اردو کا عوامی شاعر ہے اور میں پنجابی کا عوامی شاعر ہوں۔ اگرچہ بعض نقاد حبیب جالب اور استاد دامن کو نعرے باز کہتے ہیں لیکن یہ ایک رائے ہے۔ ویسے تو ڈاکٹر وزیر آغا جیسے جیّد نقاد نے فیض احمد فیض کو بھی نعرے باز کہا تھا۔ ان نقادوں کے نزدیک معروضی صداقتوں اور عصری کرب کو عوام کی زبان میں بیان کرنا نعرے بازی ہے اور ایسا کلام شعری طرزاحساس سے خالی ہوتا ہے۔ بقول حسن عسکری یہ نفس کی نہیں آفاق کی شاعری ہے۔ ’’وقت کی راگنی‘‘ میں انہوں نے بڑی صراحت سے ایسی شاعری کو رد کیا ہے۔ لیکن کیا یہی حرفِ آخر ہے؟ اس پر بحث کے درواز ے کھل سکتے ہیں۔ 1984ء ایک ایسا سال تھا جب بڑی معروف ہستیاں عالمِ جاوداں کو سدھار گئیں۔ ان میں راجندر سنگھ بیدی، خواجہ خورشید انور اور فیض احمد فیض شامل ہیں۔ اسی سال کے آخر میں (تین دسمبر1984ئ) کو استاد دامن بھی یہ جہاں چھوڑ گئے… رہے نام اللہ کا۔
