|
|  |
 |
|
| Nawaiwaqt
| Nida-i-Millat | Family
Magazine | Phool�� |
|
|
 |
Novelist Shaukat Siddiqi dies
newsdesk
The writer of the famous Urdu TV drama serial �Khuda Ki Bsasti� Shaukat Siddiqi is no more. He expired on Monday at the age of 83 and will be laid to rest on Tuesday (today) in Karachi after Zuhr prayers.
Shaukat Siddiqi was born in Lucknow in 1923 to a Bareli (U.P.) family, but he has the rare distinction of having portrayed the life of a section of Karachi�s underworld with great success. No other Karachi writer has studied the �wretched of the earth� so candidly. Shaukat Siddiqi worked at the news-desks of the Times of Karachi and the Morning News. He finally rose to be the editor of the Daily �Anajam�, the Weekly �Al-Fatah� and the Daily �Musawat� Karachi, before bidding goodbye to journalism in 1984.
Needless to say that he kept on writing short stories and novels throughout his journalistic career. Some of his works appeared in the post-journalistic phase of his career.�
He did not do so to alienate us from the seamy side of Karachi�s poor. Employing the technique of socialist realism, he induces his readers to lend a helping hand to stem the rot. He does not leave his characters in the quagmire of apathy and inaction, but tries to suggest through an organization, the Skylarks, to exert themselves and change their destiny.�
Shaukat Siddiqui�s first collection of short stories, �Teesra Admi� (1952), was a great success, and it was said that he was a top notcher in the �Beech Ki Peerhi� generation comprising Quratul Ain Haider and Joginder Paul. Subsequently, other collections of short stories �Andhere Dur Andhere� (1955), �Raton Ka Shahar� (1956) and �Keemya Gar� (1984), followed. His magnum opus is �Khuda Ki Basti�.�
�Khuda Ki Basti� has gone through 46 editions and enjoys the distinction of having been translated into 26 languages. Its English translation by Prof David Mathews of London University was equally a success.�
Other novels of Shaukat Siddiqui are �Kamin Gah� (1956), �Janglos� (1988) and �Char Deewari� (1990).�
Interestingly enough, �Char Deewari� depicts Shaukat Siddiqui�s nostalgia for his childhood days in Lucknow. When asked whether he had been to Lucknow since his migration from that city, he emphatically answered in the negative, saying he couldn�t have written �Chahar Deewari� had he visited the present-day Lucknow:�
�I do not want to say goodbye to the Lucknow of my childhood days, and hence the novel. Lucknow, I know, has changed its peculiarities over the years, and it is not the same Lucknow which I knew and which still dominates my memories,� he said. Quite an interesting point.�
Shaukat Siddiqi was indeed a major Urdu fiction writer. Throughout his long period of writing short stories and novels extending over several decades, never once did he waver in his determination to steadily follow the path of realism. His commitment to life and truth and his faith in the destiny of mankind always guided him in his literary journey
| |
 |
| | | | | |
