Abdullah Hussain and she hailed from the same city of Gujrat. She mentioned how Abdullah’s academic background of philosophy created masterpieces that were shining stars of Urdu literature, the most intriguing social commentary and historic perspective all at the same time.
“We are proud to own him as a legend, yet not a lot of people know that he was a person woven intricately into socio-cultural and socio-political affairs, who expressed himself keenly on social media,” she said.
She also shared what he wrote about departing this world on her post this Father’s Day. His love for his daughter was unusual and it grew even stronger as he got older, she said.
Pakistan Academy of Letters Chairman Fakhar Zaman, also a neighbour of Abdullah Hussain in Gujrat, saw him as “decidedly the best Urdu prose writer”.He was one of them who got more and more humble while climbing up the ladder of success and fame. “He would always change the topic, whenever anyone started talking about him. He was never a fan of flattery yet always responded with humility to compliments,” Fakhar added.
His simple lifestyle and an approach laden with reason and rationale was truly inspirational and would attract people towards him, wanting to be his friends, he said.Abdullah moved to Canada where he pursued learning in the domain of Industrial Chemistry and returned to Pakistan and worked in the Gujarat Cement Factory for a while, Fakhar revealed.
When UNESCO evinced keen interest in ‘Udas Naslain’, Abdullah Hussain translated it into English, and it was published under the title of ‘The Weary Generations’. He spent eight months at the Academy of Letters, writing his amazing collection of short stories published under the title of ‘Faraib’.
Abdullah Hussain shared with Fakhar Zaman in their last meeting that he always felt that he had done little justice to his native language Punjabi, because his entire literary work was in Urdu.
“I really want to write something in Punjabi, I guess I will start soon; it is something that I’ve been planning to do for a while,” he said. However, life had other plans for this great writer, and we were not lucky enough to be bestowed with a Punjabi masterpiece by this literary genius.