Ismat: Her Life, Her Times – Ed. Sukrita Paul Kumar & Sadique

Description

Ismat Chughtai. Fascinating, vivacious and versatile. A rebel with a fiercely individualistic way of thinking …

One of the foremost writers of modern Urdu literature, she spearheaded a social and literary revolution, startling readers by her iconoclasm. Her acerbic, lashing wit exposed the double standards of a patriarchal society existing behind a facade of refined gentility. Unfettered by any labels, yet believing firmly in the ideals of feminism and secularism, she lived life and wrote of life itself, suffusing her writings with an effervescent understanding of human nature.

This book brings you idiomatic translations that have the immediacy and wit of their originals. It highlights different aspects of Ismat Apa’s forceful and multi-faceted personality – what she thought of herself and how her peers – critics and authors – perceived her. Interesting photographs and mementos, intimate essays, deep critical insight, and memorable extracts from her own works, make this volume an absorbing and compulsive read for scholars and layperson alike.