ISLAMABAD, Jul 25 (TNS): Noted Urdu Scholar and critic Nayyar Masood who died after a prolonged illness was best known for his short stories.
Being one of the foremost Urdu writers, Naiyer Masood, is known for his masterful portrayal of the Lucknow of yore. But Masood disliked nostalgia.
A flagbearer of post-modernist tradition in Urdu, his short-stories reflect the decline of Lucknow, once the epitome of culture and civility in India. But the stories no way lament the loss of an era.
Rather they deal about the ordinary human beings, and the celebration of their courage in the face of adversities. In his stories, Masood demolishes the perception that Lucknow’s society was decadent.
His story ‘The Myna from the Peacock Garden’ [Taoos Chaman ki Mynah] is a classic. In an interview he says, “First, I wanted to offer a
corrective to the bad reputation Vajid Ali Shah had acquired. Certainly,
he had weaknesses but he had good qualities as well. I wanted to deal
with him, Lucknow, and the culture of Lucknow in a story… Ahmed Ali Khan, was the first photographer of India. He assembled his own small army and fought against the British, and was probably killed himself. In Munshi Naval Kishore’s history it says that this man was a photographer and the English respected him because of that, but that, “regrettably, in spite of all that he raised arms against the British.”
Mosood stayed all his life in Lucknow and retired as Professor of Persian at the Lucknow University. He was the son of Sayeed Masood Hasan Rizvi, who was also Professor of Persian in Lucknow University and was awarded Padmashree for literature and education in 1970.
Masood wrote many books and did varied translations, including Kafla, but was best known for his short stories. He was also awarded Sahitya Akademy in 2001 and Saraswati Samman in 2007, the India’s highest literary award and he has to his credit several collections of stories: Seemiya, Itr-i Kafur, Ta’us Chaman ki Mayna and Ganjefa. Mr Masud is also credited with translating Franz Kafka’s work into Urdu titled Kafka ke Afsane. Naiyer Masud’s work has also been translated into English, Finnish, French, and Spanish. He was considered to be an authority on Mir Anis.
Naiyer Masood was born in Lucknow in 1936. He married Sabeeha Khatoon Rizvi on Sept 30, 1971 and had four children Timsal, Durdana, Saima and Samra.
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