Mujtaba Hussain Wins
Coveted Award
By Syed Arif Hussaini
Mujtaba
Hussain, the eminent Urdu writer, wit and humorist, has
been honored with the award of the much-coveted “Padma
Shri” by the Government of India on Republic Day –
January 26, 2007.
A prolific writer and a humorist par excellence, Mujtaba
has to his credit no less than twenty books carrying his
writings over the past 40 years. His writings had already
earned him over half a dozen literary awards from different
academic association. Encomiums have been showered on him
by eminent writers like Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi, Ale Ahmad
Saroor, Nisar Farooqi, Aqueel Danish, Mushfiq Khawaja -
to mention just a few names. They accept him as a prominent
architect of wit, humor and satire on the contemporary Urdu
landscape. His witty, rueful, entertaining, wise, commonsensical,
and always-piquant writings had carved a distinct niche
for him years back. The award has thus come late; but, it
is the fourth highest award of the country and this year’s
list carries only his name among the recipients of an award
for Urdu literature.
Mujtaba, 71, hails from a high-achieving family of Hyderabad
Deccan with an exemplary dedication to Urdu language. His
elder brother, Ibrahim Jalees, is often remembered for his
contributions to Urdu satire and Urdu journalism. His masterly
satire “Chalees Crore Bhikari”, which he wrote
while still in his twenties, is regarded as a classic. He
was editing daily Masawat, Karachi, when he died of a heart
attack. Mujtaba’s another brother, Mahboob Hussain
Jigar, was one of the founding fathers of daily Siyasat
of Hyderabad that still commands considerable prestige and
circulation. The combined dedicated service of the three
brothers to Urdu language works out to over one hundred
years.
Mujtaba’s writings stand out for the simplicity of
language, absence of repetition or over-lapping of themes.
His racy style and smooth flow of pen have been lauded by
all his contemporaries. A consistent quality that one notices
in his writings is his anecdotal style. Irrespective of
whether he is writing a column, an essay or the profile
of some prominent figure, he fits it into the genre of short
story. This technique holds the attention and curiosity
of the reader while the subtle blend of wit and humor into
the story add further to its taste and texture. Then, he
appears to be revealing to people things they knew but did
not know they knew. His incisive insight picks up the odd,
his racy pen draws its sketch and his impish brush gives
it colorful touches of humor.
Enthusiasts of Urdu language and literature residing in
North America have the advantage of easy access to four
volumes of his selected writings brought out from Chicago
by another well-known literary and social figure - Hasan
Chishti (Ph: 773-743-1705).
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