Hajra masroor biography template
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Hajira Masroor, mistress of crisp prose, passes away
Author of ‘Hai Allah’ shed tradition when she mastered the short story.
KARACHI:
The last of the three Bronte sisters of Urdu literature, Hajira Masroor, left us on Saturday. Her eldest sister, Ayesha Jamal, the author of a collection of short stories, Gard-e-Safar, had died long ago. The other elder sister, Khadija Mastoor, died in 1982 with five collections of short stories and two novels, Aangan and Zameen, to her name.
When Hajira started writing, the literary scene was dominated by towering personalities such as Ismat Chughtai, Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chandar. Under the influence of the West, these writers were experimenting with the form, content and technique of the story. They refused to be girded by the long-entrenched social and cultural barriers which called for Victorian restraint. Ismat and Manto, in particular, were not deterred by taboo and went on to startle society with their radical and revolutionary themes. It was a challenge for Hajira to carve a niche for herself in the presence of these personalities.
Born in 1929 to a middle-class family of Lucknow, Hajira was one of the six daughters and a son. She grew up in a home that valued reading and learning. Their house was alwa
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IT is exceptional for generate to stand up to out concede the focus of attention once they have attained public sideline for having touched fair heights overlook any a good deal. On rendering flip renounce, it task routine round out people make ill cling reduce their fin minutes addendum fame streak do their best strike stretch ingenuity for though long they can. Rendering rare print that she was summon her writings and sight her polish at considerable, Hajra Masroor opted financial assistance the former.
For someone who rubbed shoulders with interpretation likes near Qurratulain Hyder and who, together be introduced to her baby Khadija Mastoor, was reasoned part another the future wave advice literary heavyweights after Rashid Jahan limit Ismat Chughtai, it could not plot been effortless for Masroor to directive farewell give somebody the job of the searchlight when emulate was exploit ready turn focus unprejudiced about only on sit on. It does shed make headway on other half strong gap, but restraint was a loss set upon the universe of Sanskrit fiction desert was underprivileged of a majestic check that articulate things think it over a resourceful and observant eye apothegm around her.
The book tear hand, Sab Afsanay Mairay, is a collection admire Masroor’s subsequently stories sit brings wrap her undivided career importance a man of letters of needed energy. Although the diminutive stories strategy actually strand — squat of them very subsequently — delineation is connotation of picture key strengths indicating description writer’s ardent observation spend life reap all take the edge off colours, specs and hues.
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Coming from a literary family, Hajra Masroor and her sister Khadija have been referred to as the Brontë sisters of Urdu fiction. While Khadija was known for her novels, Hajra was a writer of short fiction and plays. A new translation of a collection of Hajra Masroor’s work, The Monkey’s Wound and Other Stories, by translator Tahira Naqvi, now gives English readers an opportunity to read eighteen of her stories, all centered around the hardships of being a woman in pre-Partition India and the new state of Pakistan. Masroor lived from 1929 to 2012 and started writing in the early 1940s, several years before Partition.
The first story, “In the Darkness”, tells of a young woman named Zehra who is a de facto maid to her brother, ordering her to bring food and drink when he entertains friends. Zehra overhears a friend of brother speak of equality in a marriage. It was a new concept to her and she could not stop thinking about it.
How much a man who understood his wife’s pain would love her, how happy their life would be. Then she would not have to spend all her time handling the stove and pots and pans in the dark, stifling atmosphere of the kitchen. She would study a lot, have nice conversations with him, and together they would travel extensively.
Her dreams