My Fellow Traveller: A Translation of Humsafar

These memoirs describe the author’s life experiences, insights and interaction with friends and family, and in fact, complement the memoirs of Akhtar Husain Raipuri, the noted Urdu critic and short story writer. Hameeda Raipuri also provides luminous vignettes of other prominent people such as her father Zafar Omar, a popular Urdu novelist of his day, Sarojini Naidu, M.K. Gandhi, and Maulvi Abdul Haq. Her description of the latter, capturing his unguarded moments when he was not being the great scholar that the world knew his to be, is a valuable addition to the body of biographical writing about Maulvi Abdul Haq, and adds depth to available linear portrayals. Her compelling narrative is not less remarkable for its earthiness. She brings a woman’s sensibilities to the whole story, and because such records are rare, gives it a place of distinction in the annals of Urdu literature.