Shoaib Akhtar crosses paths with Shahid Kapoor
- 01 Feb - 07 Feb, 2025
Bapsi Sidhwa, an internationally acclaimed author and literary icon, passed away in Houston, Texas last week. She was 86. Celebrated for her poignant novels, she made an invaluable contribution to global literature. Her departure marks a profound loss for the literary world, Pakistan, India and the Zoroastrian community worldwide.
Sidhwa, best known for her collaborative work with Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, authored Ice Candy Man (1991), which inspired the critically acclaimed film, Earth (1998). She also penned Water: A Novel, which served as the foundation for Mehta’s Academy Award-nominated film Water (2005). Her works, rich in historical and cultural context, have earned her a place among the most celebrated authors of her time.
A documentary about her life, Bapsi: Silences of My Life, was released in Oct 2022 by the Citizens Archive of Pakistan. It offers a glimpse into her journey as a writer and her experiences during the partition of India, which profoundly shaped her literary vision. Born to Zoroastrian (Parsi) parents in Karachi, Bapsi Sidhwa spent her early years in Lahore. Her experiences during Partition, such as encountering a corpse hidden in a sack, later inspired key themes in her ground-breaking novel, Cracking India. Her accolades included the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1991, Pakistan’s highest national honour in the arts, and the Mondello Prize for Foreign Authors in 2007.
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