New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) The last and most enigmatic novels of one of Urdu’s greatest fiction writers Qurratulain Hyder’s which spans the period from Partition to the time of the Ayodhya dispute in the early nineties is now available in English.
The English translation of “Chandni Begum” by Saleem Kidwai has been published by Women Unlimited.
“Chandni Begum” consistently connects the present to the past.
Hyder returns to her favourite themes and spaces – Partition, women entertainers, popular mysticism, the illustrious homes of Lucknow and the chawls of Bombay – to tell a riveting tale, liberally sprinkled with entertaining characters and biting political and social comment.
The eponymous heroine, Chandni Begum, is destitute survivor of a once powerful landed family, looking for a way to get by respectably.
Centred around two prominent Lucknow families, the narrative closes in on the lives and struggles of a romantic revolutionary Qambar and three women drawn to him.
The women are Chandni Begum, Bela, the daughter of a mirasi-bhand couple, desperate to break away from her tainted ‘legacy’; and Safia, the polio-stricken daughter of the Raja of Teen Katori, an independent ‘educationist’ dealing with the crushing rejection of her childhood betrothed and the demons that haunt her in its wake.
Hyder was a journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster with BBC, as well as Producer Emeritus, AIR, and copywriter for an advertising agency. Among her many awards and honours are the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Shri, the Bharatiya Jnanpith and the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Hyder’s published work consists of four collections of short stories, five novels and several novellas.
