Play on Jamila Hashmi’s short story

LAHORE

The living nations always remember their great personalities and give them their due respect and stature, thus was the objective of a spell-binding dramatic performance by Sheema Kermani on a short story of great Pakistani feminist and writer Jamila Hashmi at the Alhamra Arts Council on Thursday's evening.

The event was organised by ‘Tehrik-e-Niswan’ in memory and honour of Jamila Hashmi, a renowned short story writer and novelist.

The dramatic performance and entire proceedings of the mega event was attended by a highly significant number of the literary community of the country including writers, artists, poets, intellectuals and renowned people from all walks of life.

A 50-minute dramatic performance by Sheema Kirmani, which kept the jam-packed hall in an engrossed silence and admiration for the unmatched dancing skills of this internationally acknowledged Pakistani dance icon, was based on Jamila Hashmi’s love story titled “Sherry”.

Earlier, Ayesha Siddiqa, daughter of Jamila Hashmi and the main organiser of the event, presented a brief introduction of her illustrated mother Jamila Hashmi.

Ayesha maintained that the event was organised as a tribute and also to revive the memory of the great writers of this country who had not been given their due credit due to ‘Literary Divide ‘ and their names had been ignored despite the fact that she deserved to be cherished and highly honoured as a great literary asset of this country.

She told the audience that Jamila Hashmi was born in Amritsar in 1934 and after ’47 came to Lahore and settled in Sahiwal.

She shifted to Lahore to complete her education and did her Masters in English Literature from FC College and then married to Sardar Ahmed Awaisi of Bahawalpur. Jamila Hashmi died in 1988.

Fehmida Riaz revealed that Jamila Hashmi was perhaps the greatest and most inspiring female writer in Pakistan who wrote so many novels and stories about the culture and lifestyle of Punjab’s people, especially the Sikh living style.

She added that great Indian writer Rajindar Singh Bedi, while giving great tributes to Jamila Hashmi, once said about one of her novels “It is a mini Classic”.

Jamila Hashmi’s first novel was “Attish-e-Rufta”, which was serialised by Ishfaq Hussain. Other writings included “Talash-e-Baharan”(A novel which received prestigious Adam Jee Award), her collections of stories include ‘Rang Bhoom”, “Aap Bieti-Jug Bieti” and her trilogy of novels “Apna Apna jahanum” and a novelette “Rohi”.