A world-eminent literary figure, Bapsi Sidhwa left this earth on Wednesday at the age of 86 in Houston, Texas. An author of outstanding tear-shedding novels, she made priceless contributions to global literature. Her demise is one of the strong emotional losses to the literary world at large, to Pakistan, India, and indeed Zoroastrians on the planet.
She was best known for working with Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, especially in the sense of adapting her novel “Ice Candy Man” (1991) into a popularly acknowledged film “Earth” (1998). She also wrote “Water: A Novel” (2006), a basis for Mehta’s Academy Award-nominated “Water” (2005). Her rich historical-cultural context made her one of the most celebrated authors of her time.
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About her life, a documentary “Bapsi: Silences of My Life” was released in October 2022 by the Citizens Archive of Pakistan. It focuses on her writing venture and the effects of the Indian partition. Born to Zoroastrian (Parsi) parents in Karachi, most of her early life was spent in Lahore. At the age of two, she contracted polio, an atrophy-like encumbrance that made her quite strong and gave her a different attitude toward life. Some experiences during the Partition later become center attractions in her groundbreaking novel, “Cracking India.”
After graduating from Kinnaird College in Lahore in 1957, she started her career as a writer when she got married and returned to Pakistan. Her novels, such as “The Crow Eaters” (1978), “The Bride” (1982), “An American Brat” (1993), and “City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore” (2006), portray the cultural-historical texture of South Asia with extreme vibrancy.
In 1991, she was given the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, which is the highest national award in the arts given by Pakistan, and in 2007, she earned the Mondello Prize for Foreign Authors. Inducted into the Zoroastrian Hall of Fame, her work recognized her as a global literary ambassador for the community. The Bapsi Sidhwa Literary Prize, which is sponsored by the Zoroastrian Association of Houston and FEZANA Information Research Education System, keeps alive her heritage as the first officially identified Zoroastrian author with international fame.
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Apart from these achievements, there was an aspect of Sidhwa in terms of big-heartedness and kindness. A close friend and former neighbor in Lahore remembers with nostalgia how Sidhwa offered her garage as a painting studio in the 1970s, which was very instrumental in starting an art career.
Her passing now leaves an unerasable gap in this intellectual and literary world. The work that she leaves behind is deep, compassionate to its characters, and culturally rich – it carries a legacy that one could imagine being remarkable. Sidhwa is survived by her three children: Mohur, Koko, and Parizad. Her prayers will be held at the Bhandara Agiary of Houston, given in the name of Tehmina Bhandara, Sidhwa’s mother.