I have been reading Mazdak/ Irfan Husain’s articles in Dawn for last 20+ years. Although I often disagreed with his opinions but yet used to read them regularly.
Son of acclaimed writers Akhtar Husain Raipuri and Begum Hameeda Akhtar Husain Raipuri. Begum Hameeda Akhtar, an acclaimed writer herself was daughter of Zufar Umar author of نیلی چھتری famed detective books. Zafar Umar was the first اردو writer of genre of detective fiction.
When Begum Hameeda Akhtar published her first book after the death of her husband, my mother and sister who read her autobiographical book wanted to meet her. We went to her house behind چیل والی کوٹھی
off khalid bin walid road near Paramount Book store on Sufi Street, one lane off main Khalid Bin Waleed Road, PECHS, Karachi.Thereafter we went a few times and enjoyed her company. Great woman. Currently brother of Irfan Husain lives in that house.
Dawn columnist Irfan Husain passed away early Wednesday in Dorset, England, his family said.
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In a tweet, his son Shakir Husain said he was grateful his father “slipped away gently” and that he was able to be with him. “See you on the other side, Abba.”
In a column in Dawn published earlier this year in August, Husain had said that he had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer nearly three years ago.
“After nearly three years of this barrage, I must confess there are times I wish it would just end quietly without fuss. But then I look outside the window and see the flowers, trees and birds in our garden, and I am happy to be still alive,” he wrote in the column.
#DawnToday
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Published 17 Dec, 2020 07:29am
Columnist Irfan Husain passes away
FROM THE NEWSPAPER
KARACHI: Columnist, author and a global citizen as he used to describe himself, Irfan Husain, passed away early Wednesday in Dorset, England. He was 76.
Husain wrote weekly columns for Dawn and in one such write-up published in August, he shared with readers that he had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer three years ago, according to Dawn.com.
He wrote for weekly Outlook, The Star and later Dawn under various pseudonyms. His writings were never soft on governments and often evoked strong reactions.
He joined the civil service in 1967 after obtaining a master’s degree in economics, while also pursuing his love for writing.
He served as culture secretary, information minister and also a diplomat in Washington for a short span before his retirement in 1997.
Born into a family in Amritsar, where reading, art, culture and discussions were encouraged, Husain was educated in Paris, Ankara and Karachi. His family migrated to Pakistan at the time of independence.
Besides his taste for literature, art and music, he was also known for his love for culinary. He wrote on food and occasionally shared his culinary expertise through Dawn EOS’ Epicurious column.
In 2012, he authored a book titled Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West. At its launch, he described the thought of writing a book as ‘frightening’ since he had been mostly writing columns. According to Husain, his book was primarily intended for a Western audience and for them to understand how they were viewed by the Muslim world, but at the same time, it was an attempt to explain to Muslim readers why they were viewed so negatively in the West.
According to the publisher Harper Collins, Husain pursued a parallel and covert career as a freelance journalist for most of his working life, writing under a succession of pseudonyms. He divided his time between the UK, Pakistan and Sri Lanka since 2002, the publisher said.
In one of his recent columns for Dawn years after being diagnosed with cancer, Husain said: “After nearly three years of this barrage, I must confess there are times I wish it would just end quietly without fuss. But then I look outside the window and see the flowers, trees and birds in our garden, and I am happy to be still alive.”
Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2020
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