Wajida Tabassum is barely known outside Urdu literary circles. Tabassum “is startlingly clear in what she portrays — all that is sin to others is salvation to her women,” writes Reema Abbasi, a Karachi-based journalist who has translated 19 of Tabassum’s stories and an essay for the first time in English — Sin is a collection of some of her …
In this collection of stories, Wajida Tabassum neither seeks to placate nor shock: she merely holds up a mirror to society as it is. Wajida Tabassum, considered one of the foremost writers in Urdu, is often referred to as the ‘female Manto’. While most of the stories revolve around women, Tabassum also records the lives of men who make unconventional …
Two blocks before the Charminar—the majestic symbol of Hyderabad and its founding Qutub Shahi dynasty—lies the Patel Market kamaan. “During Nizam VII’s reign, the two famous book stores were Haziq and Mohi and Saduddin Book Depot,” recalls Anand Raj Verma, author of 28 Urdu textbooks and Hyderabad: Mohalle, Gali Aur Kooche. The only ones interested enough, says Ibrahim Bafana, nephew …
