Happy Birthday Bano Qudsia!!!
Google today celebrates the 92nd birthday of Bano Qudsia, a Pakistani novelist, playwright and spiritualist. She was popularly known as Bano Aapa, which means Elder Sister.
Bano Qudsia, best recognized for her novel Raja Gidh. She is widely credited as one of the most significant Urdu language authors in modern times. Renowned for her message of love and hope, Qudsia earned enormous acclaim for Urdu classics like her television play Aadhi Baat (Half Talk, 1968) and novel Raja Gidh (The Vulture King, 1981).
Bano Qudsia was born on November 28, 1928, in Firozpur, British India, as Qudsia Chattha. She began to write short stories when she was a child.
Bano Qudsia migrated to Lahore with her family after the partition of India and had begun writing short stories while studying in class 5. While in school, she also met her future husband and fellow luminary of Urdu literature Ashfaq Ahmad.
Graduation
Bano Qudsia graduated from the Kinnaird College in Lahore and then joined the Government College University (Lahore) (GCU) to do her masters in Urdu literature which she completed in 1951. She married writer Ashfaq Ahmed whom she had met at the Government College University in Lahore. The couple had considered inseparable in their social lives.
During a fertile era of Pakistani literature, Bano Qudsia’s thought-provoking television plays earned her a reputation as a cultural trendsetter. She wrote a prolific 25 novels and founded her own magazine called Dastango. Even as her legend grew throughout her six-decade career, she maintained a reputation for her radical acceptance and kindness, known to embrace those from all walks of life who approached her for mentorship or assistance.
Later, Bano Qudsia awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) by the Pakistani Government in 1983. The government awarded her the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence) for her services in literature in 2010. She received many other accolades during her lifetime.
Eventually, Bano Qudsia died at the age of 88; on February 4, 2017 at the Ittefaq Hospital in Lahore. Google pays her tribute with a beautiful doodle on her 92nd birthday.