There’s an Urdu proverb that is oft used in local parlance.
‘Ghar ki murgi daal barabar’
One can say that the meaning is the same as the English proverb, ‘No man is a hero to his valet.’
I am reminded today of this Urdu proverb on Begum Masroor Jahan’s fifth death anniversary this September, who was also my grandmother.
I came with a pack of dreams on my back to this overwhelming city of Delhi for my higher studies. While pursuing graduation from Jamia Millia Islamia, I was exposed to a number of eminent teachers and speakers who regularly visited the University for delivering talks and held seminars etc. I clearly remember it was an Urdu seminar on the works of renowned Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai that I was keenly attending. I had seen her photograph in my grandmother’s album when she visited our humble abode in Lucknow. That photograph of Ismat Aapa had inspired me to read some of her works and I was completely blown over by the lady’s writings and her guts.
During high tea, I had the opportunity to interact with some of the speakers and one of the speakers appreciated my little knowledge of Urdu. I said it’s because of my Amma, my grandmother who insists that we should speak in Urdu when at home and also because she is a writer herself, her Urdu vocabulary is quite rich, in turn enriching my vocabulary.
That gentleman inquired about my Amma and I told him Begum Masroor Jahan is my grandmother. That person asked me again, “Are you really Urdu writer, Masroor Jahan’s granddaughter?” I nodded my head in acquiescence and his expression of great awe mixed with wonder and admiration made me think, “Is my Amma really that popular as a writer?”
I called up Amma that evening and asked her, ‘Amma, are you really a renowned writer of Urdu?’
She laughed it off and replied in her classic humorous sense, ‘Not really renowned but I do scrawl and sometimes people appreciate it.’
That was the kind of sense of humor and simplicity that Amma possessed and one couldn’t help but be touched by it in so many ways.
In the years that followed, I read most of Amma’s works that were published post 2000. It was then that I got to know Begum Masroor Jahan beyond my Amma.
Masroor Jahan’s oeuvre consisted of more than 65 novels and 500 short stories which made her the most prolific contemporary Urdu writers. She was married at the tender age of 16 and so had to give up her formal education but her romance with the pen continued. According to her, one’s passion is like water, it always finds a way to keep moving ahead.
Amma’s short story collections post 2000 showed her prowess even though she was a known name in Urdu circles from before. However, due to familial responsibilities and some personal tragedies, she couldn’t socialize much and was conspicuous by her physical absence from most of the literary gatherings and festivals that were hijacked by the same familiar faces of the Urdu literary circle especially in Lucknow.
With the revival of Dastangoi, oral storytelling became very popular and many people started dramatized readings of pieces of literature. It was Jameel Gulrays of Katha Kathan who first read Amma’s stories for his Youtube channel and later on stage. I invited him to Lucknow in 2017 for an event I helped in curating in which he read Amma’s short story ‘Miyan Ki Haveli’. The audience was spellbound!
In Jameel Gulrays’s words, “Masroor Jahan has given importance to women and their issues in her writings. These themes had been addressed in Urdu fiction before her as well. However, she did not adopt the approach often associated with some women writers. Whether her characters are women from the middle or lower classes, or educated women raised in elite circles or modern society, she maintains a cautious approach in presenting their issues, gender and psychological complexities and other attitudes. The most significant characteristic of Masroor Jahan’s stories is that, beyond highlighting changes in human society and relationships, they focus on women and families whose construction and destruction is itself a profound theme.”
Jameel Gulrays is the founder of Katha Kathan that strives to preserve literature in regional languages. This year, Katha Kathan joined hands with Wings Cultural Society and presented dramatized readings of Masroor Jahan’s short stories Khoye Huye Lamhe, Lootera and Jilawatan whereas in Delhi similar dramatized reading events were organized by Sanchaari and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Memorial Society in which one more story, Kunji was also presented.
Lootera deals with the much brushed-under-the-carpet issue of marital rape. Masroor Jahan wrote this story at a time when the term marital rape too was not coined. Khoye Huye Lamhe deals with the issue of loss of identity of a woman after her marriage in which she sacrifices her dreams in order to follow the rules of a new house. The story not only deals with patriarchy a woman is subjected to at the hands of her husband but also identity.
Kunji is an exceptional story from Amma’s vast repertoire. It talks about bisexuality. The protagonist of the story is a theatre actor called Kunji who is being patronized by a Nawab who has forgotten his newly wedded wife and is enamored by Kunji. In the climax of the story, an irked young Begum of Nawab Zeeshan confronts Kunji who is awestruck by her beauty and falls for her. For the first time in his life, his heart beat in a new way.
The climax reveals Kunji opening the door of his room to the Nawab, not dressed as a woman but as a young man clad in an impeccably white kurta pyjama, leaving Nawab Zeeshan nonplussed. While most of Masroor Jahan’s stories are women centric, stories like Jilawatan have shown the plight of male migrant workers. The psychology of a man who has gone to earn in a distant land is portrayed exceptionally well in the story in which his wife has been shown in a negative light for she is not concerned about anything but the paychecks that the husband keeps sending.
“Jilawatan is very close to my heart. It beautifully portrays the feelings of a man who feels like a stranger within his own family. The wife cherishes the material things more than her husband’s well-being who has sacrificed the comfort of his home to live in a cramped room in a foreign land," says Tariquee Haameed, founder of Wings Cultural Society.
Masroor Jahan belonged to a family of writers and shayars. Her grandfather was renowned poet Sheikh Mehdi Husain Nasri, who taught at Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow and later became a professor and Head of Department, Arabic and Persian in Aligarh Muslim University. He also penned a comprehensive history of Persian literature titled Sanadeed-e-Ajam which still remains one of the most acclaimed books on Persian literature in present day Iran.
Her father was Naseer Husain ‘Khayal’ who used to teach at Islamia College and later at Khalsa College, Lucknow. So one can say that she grew up being surrounded by books. And so she penned her first short story at the age of 9 which she wrote and then threw away as trash. However, her first short story was published at the age of 13 titled Woh Kaun Thi.
Masroor Jahan had to give up her formal education because of her marriage at the age of 16 but herromance with the pen continued, with stories after stories that touched on almost all the issues in society. She also became only the second writer in Urdu after Jilani Bano whose works were translated in Russian by Javeed Kholov who also submitted his thesis on her works and worked as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Tajikistan in his career.
On her fifth death anniversary this September, Sanchaari organized another evening of Afsaana Hui Shaam, dramatized readings of her short stories. Writer and storyteller Sunita Singh who read Lootera says, “It is unbelievable that a writer of her stature was not so popular among non-Urdu circles. She talks about marital rape and uses the term too which I think shows her boldness and guts.’
I am currently translating Amma’s works in English and so is Professor Fatima Rizvi, Lucknow University. Hopefully, when her writings reach a wider audience, people will acknowledge her unparalleled competence.