Written by: Mahnoor Fatima
Posted on: June 05,2020 | 
| 中文
Dr.Asif Farrukhi (photo credit to Shayma Saiyid)
A dark cloud hung over the Urdu literature community and Karachi literary circles this week, as the renowned writer, critic, translator, and editor Dr. Asif Farrukhi passed away at the age of 60 due to medical complications. Dr. Farrukhi was one of the people responsible for the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), which is now a staple of Pakistan’s urban cultural scene. But more so, he was committed to perpetuating and inspiring a love for Urdu literature.
Born in 1959 to a family of writers, including father Dr. Asim Farrukhi and great-great-grandfather, the famous Urdu novelist Deputy Nazir Ahmad. He studied at St. Patrick’s High School in Karachi, qualified as a doctor from Dow University of Health Sciences, and was awarded a degree in public health by Harvard University. In an interview, he said that he had little difficulty navigating between public health and literature, and both were equally important to him.
Among his accolades, he worked as faculty at the Agha Khan University from 1985 to 1993, with his mentor and public health pioneer Professor John H. Bryant. From 1994 to 2014, he was the Health and Nutrition Program officer at UNICEF, in charge of monitoring and managing Maternal and Child Health in the country. In 2005, he received the Award of Excellence for his contributions to health and literature.
Dr. Farrukhi with Kishwar Naheed at Adab Fest 2020 (Photo credits to Shayma Saiyid)
Since 2016, he was an associate professor and interim dean of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Habib University, Karachi. In addition, he founded the Arzu Centre for Regional Languages and Humanities at Habib. In 2019, he co-founded Adab Festival as a way to celebrate literary and artistic expressions of all Pakistani languages, and challenged the stereotypes around them.
In 2010, he and co-founder Ameena Saiyid began KLF for Oxford University Pakistan (OUP), to celebrate and discuss Pakistani literature and culture. In subsequent years, KLF expanded to incorporate Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) in 2013 and Teacher’s Literature Festival in 2014. KLF has taken place in Pakistan and abroad, with many esteemed international writers participating in the discussion of literature and beyond.
Dr. Farrukhi with Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra at Adab Fest 2020 (Photo credits to Shayma Saiyid)
In terms of personal literary achievements, Dr. Farukkhi wrote and translated about six collections of short stories and two books on literary criticism, the latest of which was a collection of critical essays on the work of Saadat Hassan Manto. Many Urdu readers say they can scarcely pick up a recently published book or translation, without seeing Dr. Farrukhi’s name in the introduction.
He was the editor of the Urdu literary magazine Duniyazad, and a long-time admirer of Intezar Hussain, Muhammad Hassan Askari, Ghulam Abbas, Ismat Chughtai, and more. His book “Look at the City from Here” (2012) collected short stories of famous writers who lived and worked in Karachi, from Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai to Lawrence of Arabia, to Fehmida Raiz and Kamila Shamshie.
Nirmal Verma, Khalida Husain, Intizar Husain and Asif Farrukhi in 1997 (photo credits to Dawn)
Dr. Farrukhi was also known to be a man of great kindness, and social media poured with stories of people who saw him as a literary mentor, and was known for his sincerity and humility. He treated students, colleagues, friends alike, and was never shy of engaging in a discussion on literature. Shortly before passing away, he had begun recording a series of videos on YouTube called, “Tala Bandi ka Roznamcha (Lockdown Diaries)”
A regular op-ed writer and panel speaker, he urged both statesmen and regular people to take literature seriously, and to appreciate writers in life, not in death. He encouraged people to see regional languages beyond geographic locations, and treat them as national languages, which he believed should instill pride in the whole country.
But perhaps most importantly, he celebrated the joy of reading, writing, and speaking in Urdu, not just out of a national duty but out of genuine love for this versatile, multi-layered, and nuanced language. He not only showed how important it is to study, discuss and keep alive the Urdu language, but helped facilitate a literary festival culture in Pakistan that was vibrant, yet thoughtful and educational. We hope that the cultural community of Pakistan will be able to carry forward Dr. Farrukhi’s love of literature.
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