Padam Shri, Urdu author, humorist and satirist Mujtaba Hussain passed away on Wednesday after a prolonged illness at 84.
According to family sources, he breathed his last at his residence in Red Hills. He was not well for the last couple of years due to age-related issues.
For the past half a century, this Padma Shri recipient has been dishing out humour. He had recently published two books “Mujtaba Hussain Jaisa Dekha Jaisa Paya” and “Mujtaba Hussain Aayeinon ke Beech”. The former book is all about his personality and the latter deals with his art and style. The books were published by the Educational Publishing House, Delhi.
Satirical works of this Hyderabadi writer were translated into Hindi, English, Oriya, Kannada, Russian and Japanese languages. His travelogue ‘Japan Chalo Japan Chalo’ was one of the unique contributions to Urdu literature.
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Hussain began his literary career from “Siasat”, a leading Urdu daily published from Hyderabad and was a regular columnist there till a couple of years ago. Readers used to eagerly wait for his Sunday column.
In December last year, Mujtaba Hussain had decided to return his Padma Shri award to protest “the atmosphere of fear and hatred created by the Modi government”.
Hussain had said that he was pained over the current situation in the country with those in power targeting minorities, especially Muslims.
Concerned over the hatred and fear created among the community through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), the writer had said that he was feeling suffocated and his conscience was pricking him.
The enduring appeal of Hussain’s writings is a tribute to his uncanny sense of humour and the Urdu language itself. Well known writer-journalist, Khushwant Singh, is an unabashed admirer of Hussain and feels he is rare among Indian writers of humour.
