Bano Quadsia

Bano Qudsia was born in Firozpur in 1927. She wrote Raja Gidh and Haasil Ghaat. She is married to Ashfaq Ahmed. She has worked as a playwright, and her current occupation is writer.

Bano moved with her family to Lahore during the Partition of India. Her father, a landlord with a Bachelor's degree in agriculture, died when Bano was very young. She attended school in Dharamsala in eastern India before moving to Lahore. Her mother, Mrs. Chattah, was an educationalist, and this inspired the young Bano to develop a keen interest in academics, which turned her into a conscientious student. Her marriage to Ashfaq Ahmed consummated the artist in her, though she says she never discussed any of her works with her husband nor has the writer-spouse ever tried to influence her writings. "We work very independently. Writing a book is like bearing a child and you do not share that with anyone. God is your only confidant. It is also like falling in love. You keep it personal and private.As a student, she wrote for college magazines and other journals. Her memories of her days at Kinnaird College in Lahore, from where she graduated, are still quite vivid. She talks of the literary inspiration that was a hallmark at Kinnaird's campuses during those days. Though her stay at Kinnaird went a long way in sharpening her scholarly skills, Bano felt an incessant need to polish her expressions in Urdu, the only language with which she could reach the minds of the people. So in 1951, she completed her M.A. degree in Urdu from the Government College Lahore with distinction.

She has authored numerous short stories, novelettes, television and radio plays, and stage plays. Her short stories include Baz Gasht, Amar Bail, Doosra Darwaza and Twajju ki Talib. Of her novels, none has received as much recognition as Raja Gidh which centers around the forbidden truth. The plot buildsaround the symbol of a vulture, a bird of prey, that feeds on dead flesh and carcasses. The moral sought implies that indulgence in the forbidden leads to physical and mental degeneration.Some of her best plays include Tamasil, Hawa key Naam, Seharay and Khaleej. The plight of women and other socio-economic issues have often been the subject of her television serials that have inspired families wherever they have been aired. The Graduate Award for Best Playwright was conferred on Bano in 1986, followed by the same award for three consecutive years from 1988 to 1990. In 1986, she was also given the Taj Award for Best Playwright. Rather critical of the deviation of today's woman from her natural role of mother and home keeper, Bano decries what she terms 'a woman's unsolicited and disoriented escape from responsibility.' Interestingly, though, she blames men for plotting a conspiracy to push women out of the house, her only domain. "And women fall easy prey to this trap. Men of the post-industrialization era gave women a taste of luxurious lifestyles and then instigated them to step out of the house and earn that lifestyle. The woman developed a taste for what she thought was freedom for her, but which actually bonded her as a labourer and a breadwinner."She cites the example of the woman who does the dishes in her home. "This woman is more liberated than your modern women, since she does not suffer from any conflicts of the 'self'. Poverty is all that hurts her and she is not caught in a rat race to prove something to herself or carve out an identity for herself. Her existence is identity enough.Bano also feels that what she calls women's 'strength of softness' has been lost in their struggle to prove themselves equal to men. What women take as their weaknesses are in fact their strengths, she believes.

Bano Qudsia planned to co-author a book with her (now late) husband. Her obligations towards her family are much more important for her than her work. "My husband (now late), my three sons and daughter-in-law have all been very kind to me and have always showered their affections on me. So, how can I ever put anything else before them?"

Having lived a fulfilling life, which Bano ascribes to the benevolence of those around her, she kept herself busy caring for her husband. She is now working on her present literary undertaking - a novel which she plans to title Dastan Serai, after her home. "I formally started work on this novel in 1992. Prior to this, I had worked on it during the 1950s. The novel is set against the backdrop of Partition and revolvesaround the theme of intention and motivation. It highlights the importance of intention as the key determinant behind every act.

By Gulraiz Kamal

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born on February 13, 1911, in Sialkot, India, which is now part of Pakistan. He had a privileged childhood as the son of wealthy landowners Sultan Fatima and Sultan Muhammad Khan, who passed away in 1913, shortly after his birth. His father was a prominent lawyer and a member of an elite literary circle which included Allama Iqbal, the national poet of Pakistan.

In 1916, Faiz entered Moulvi Ibrahim Sialkoti, a famous regional school, and was later admitted to the Skotch Mission High School where he studied Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. He received a Bachelor's degree in Arabic, followed by a master's degree in English, from the Government College in Lahore in 1932, and later received a second master's degree in Arabic from the Oriental College in Lahore.After graduating in 1935, Faiz began a teaching career at M.A.O. College in Amritsar and then at Hailey College of Commerce in Lahore.

Faiz's early poems had been conventional, light-hearted treatises on love and beauty, but while in Lahore he began to expand into politics, community, and the thematic interconnectedness he felt was fundamental in both life and poetry. It was also during this period that he married Alys George, a British expatriate and convert to Islam, with whom he had two daughters. In 1942, he left teaching to join the British Indian Army, for which he received a British Empire Medal for his service during World War II. After the partition of India in 1947, Faiz resigned from the army and became the editor of The Pakistan Times, a socialist English-language newspaper.

On March 9, 1951, Faiz was arrested with a group of army officers under the Safety Act, and charged with the failed coup attempt that became known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. He was sentenced to death and spent four years in prison before being released. Two of his poetry collections, Dast-e Saba and Zindan Namah, focus on life in prison, which he considered an opportunity to see the world in a new way. While living in Pakistan after his release, Faiz was appointed to the National Council of the Arts by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government, and his poems, which had previously been translated into Russian, earned him the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963.

In 1964, Faiz settled in Karachi and was appointed principal of Abdullah Haroon College, while also working as an editor and writer for several distinguished magazines and newspapers. He worked in an honorary capacity for the Department of Information during the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and wrote stark poems of outrage over the bloodshed between Pakistan, India, and what later became Bangladesh. However, when Bhutto was overthrown by Zia Ul-Haq, Faiz was forced into exile in Beirut, Lebanon. There he edited the magazine Lotus, and continued to write poems in Urdu. He remained in exile until 1982. He died in Lahore in 1984, shortly after receiving a nomination for the Nobel Prize.

Throughout his tumultuous life, Faiz continually wrote and published, becoming the best-selling modern Urdu poet in both India and Pakistan. While his work is written in fairly strict diction, his poems maintain a casual, conversational tone, creating tension between the elite and the common, somewhat in the tradition of Ghalib, the renowned 19th century Urdu poet. Faiz is especially celebrated for his poems in traditional Urdu forms, such as the ghazals, and his remarkable ability to expand the conventional thematic expectations to include political and social issues.

By Gulraiz Kamal

Muhammad Husain Azad

Muhammad Husain Azad (1830-1910) was an Urdu writer, who is regarded as the best Urdu prose writer. He wrote prose as well as poetry but he is mostly remembered for his prose. His contribution and impact is immense to Urdu literature and prose in particular.

He is famous for his masterpiece Aab-e-Hayat (meaning elixir of life). It is regarded as the most often printed and most widely read book of Urdu because of its numerous qualities, which makes it a constant companion or a book of reference for an ardent Urdu lover.

He was born in Delhi in a highly educated Persian immigrant family. His mother died when he was four years old. His father was Maulvi Muhammad Baqir (c.1810-1857), was a man of versatile talents, and was educated at the newly founded Delhi College. Besides his many other activities he worked in the British administration. In early 1837 Maulvi Muhammad Baqir bought a press and launched the Dihli Urdu Akhbaar (Delhi Urdu Newspaper), which was probably the first Urdu newspaper in north India. Maulvi Muhammad Baqir was executed for siding with Mughals and joining the rebellion in 1857.

Muhammad Husain Azad was the only son of Maulvi Baqir and was married to Aghai Begum daughter of another Persian immigrant family. Following his father's death and a period of turmoil in Delhi, Azad migrated to Lahore in 1861. After struggling for years he gradually settled down in Lahore and started teaching at newly founded (1964) Government College, Lahore,and later at Oriental College, Lahore, found under the auspices of Anjuman-e-Punjab (Punjab Society).

In Lahore he came in contat of Dr. G. W. Leitner who was the Principal and founder of Anjuman-e-Punjab. Anjuman-ePunjab's mission was solely cultural and academic, Anjuman arranged public lectures, set up a free library and reading room, compiled educational texts and translations in Indian languages, and established Lahore's famous Oriental College. The Anjuman was actively supported by leading British officials of the time and was considered a grat success. In 1866 Azad became a regularly paid lecturer on behalf of the Anjuman; in 1867 he became its secretary.In 1887 he managed to set up the 'Azad Library', which earned him praise and earned the title of 'Shams ul-ulamā' (Sun among the Learned). After undergoing great personal, health and mental loses, Azad died in Lahore in 1910, at the age of eighty.

Around 1845 he was enrolled at Delhi College in Urdu-medium 'Oriental' section, which offered Arabic and Persian rather than English. He keenly pursued his studies for about eight years before graduating in 1854.

By: Gulraiz Kamal

The Wright Brothers

Wilbur and Orville were born in Indiana and Ohio, respectively; neither sought education beyond high school, though both showed an aptitude for mechanicsand independent study from an early age. In 1878 the Wright brothers first became interested in flight when their father brought a toy whirligig home forthem to play with. They tinkered with the basic design and built their own models, displaying an inventiveness that would stay with them throughout theirlives.

When the brothers heard of Otto Lilienthal's fatal glider crash in 1896, theybegan to seriously consider the problem of flight. They meticulously studiedcontemporary aeronautical research--including that of American engineer Octave Chanute (1832-1910), a pioneer of the biplane --and observed the flights of soaring birds.

They first tackled the problem of controlling the machine in all three axes of movement (up and down, side to side, forward and backward) without resorting to the pilot twisting or shifting his body weight as Lilienthal had. Afterobserving buzzards control their flight by twisting their wing tips, they settled on wing warping as the best method of maintaining balance.

To test their theories, the Wrights traveled to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, an ideal site for wind and terrain. Following experiments with a biplane kite,they built several gliders, each more sophisticated than its predecessor. During the process they discovered errors in the mathematical tables that Lilienthal had created to explain lift. To achieve the correct calculations, theybuilt their own wind tunnel with a homemade pressure-testing device to checkthe amount of lift in various wing configurations.

By the time they returned to Kitty Hawk in 1902 with their last glider, the Wright brothers had solved the basic problems of control. They gave this glider narrower wings which curved much less than the previous ones. They also mounted a tail assembly on the back that acted as a rudder, with control wires linking it to the wing-warping mechanism. Before returning to Dayton, Wilbur Wright flew the glider 622 feet (189.71 m) in just 26 seconds.

The Wrights immediately prepared for powered flight the following year at Kitty Hawk. They needed a gasoline engine to provide the power, but none in existence was light enough. Consequently, the resourceful brothers designed and built their own four-cylinder, 12-horsepower engine.

They also worked on propellers for the craft, only to discover that little was known about how they worked. They soon realized that a propeller was nothing more than a wing moving in a circular course and finally designed and builttwo blades that would be mounted at the rear of the plane so the craft wouldbe undisturbed by propeller turbulence. In addition, the blades would spin in opposite directions to prevent torque from pulling the craft to one side.

The Wrights returned to Kitty Hawk in September 1903, ready to try their powered machine. Storms, engine problems, and the need to devise a takeoff systemslowed progress. Then, on December 14, 1903, the brothers were ready and Wilbur, who had won a coin toss, took the first ride. Unaccustomed to the engine's power, he rose too steeply, stalled, and then plowed into the sand, slightly damaging the craft. On December 17, Orville took his turn. He rose into the air, climbing to about 10 feet (3 m), and landed 12 seconds later, some 120feet (37 m) beyond the takeoff point. The Wrights flew three more times thatday, with Wilbur covering 852 feet (259 m) in a 59-second flight. In the next two years, the brothers built improved models of their aircraft and, by 1905, they were staying aloft for as long as 38 minutes and covering a distanceof 24 miles.

In 1908, they sold the first military airplane to the U.S. Department of War;this same year Orville established several aloft records in excess of one hour before crashing and injuring himself. Fortunately, he fully recovered andthe Wrights formed both a German and an American company to manufacture airplanes. Although they never became wealthy due to patent infringements and lawsuits, the brothers were universally hailed as the first to unlock the secretsof flight through their determination, experimentation, and inventiveness.

By: Aman Sherwani

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany, the first child of a bourgeois Jewish couple. The young Albert displayed an early interest in science, but he was unhappy with the principles of obedience and conformity that governed his Catholic elementary school. At the age of ten, he began attending the Luitpold Gymnasium, though most of his education consisted of the study and reading he undertook on his own under the guidance of his Uncle Jakob and the young medical student and family friend Max Talmud. Talmud recommended popular science and philosophy books that put an abrupt end to the boy's short-lived but intense religious fervor, perhaps to the relief of his nonobservant parents.
When his parents moved to Italy in 1893, Einstein dropped out of school and renounced both his German citizenship and his Jewish faith. He applied to study at the Zurich Polytechnic, an advanced Swiss technical institute. However, he failed the entrance examinations and was not accepted until spending a year of preparation at a Swiss secondary school. Between 1896 and 1900, he participated in a teachers' training program at the Zurich Polytechnic, where he met his lifelong friends Marcel Grossman and Michele Angelo Besso, as well as his first wife, Mileva Maric. Following the completion of his program in 1900, Einstein went on to work as a teacher and tutor in a series of posts in Germany and Switzerland. He finally settled in Bern, Switzerland, in 1902, where he received a job as a technical expert in a patent office. In Bern, Einstein married Mileva and the couple raised two sons together.
The year 1905 has been termed Einstein's annus mirabilis, or miracle year, because it was in this year that the scientist published three of his most important papers and completed most of the work for his doctoral degree, which he received in 1906. Einstein's papers dealt with quantum theory, Brownian motion, and special relativity. In subsequent years, he expanded his theory of special relativity to account for accelerating frames of reference, so that he could then theorize that the laws of physics (including both mechanics and electrodynamics) are the same for all observers in all frames of reference. This theory, known as general relativity, was fully formulated by 1915. In 1919, scientists verified general relativity through measurements taken during a solar eclipse, and Einstein was catapulted into a position of international prominence. However, while his relativity theory won him popular fame, it was his contributions to quantum theory that won Einstein a Nobel Prize in 1922.
For most of Einstein's life, he worked as a university professor. He began at the University of Bern in 1909, but also taught at Prague and Zurich before ultimately settling at the University of Berlin and the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1915. Although Mileva and their sons initially lived in Berlin with Albert, the couple separated shortly thereafter and in 1919 obtained an official divorce. Einstein remarried that same year, to his cousin Elsa Lowenthal, and lived with her until her death in 1936.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Einstein became increasingly active in politics and international affairs. He was a strong supporter of Zionism and traveled on a lecturing tour to the United States in 1922 to raise money on behalf of a new Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Einstein's Zionism was primarily cultural rather than nationalistic; he wanted to preserve the values of social justice and intellectual aspiration that he associated with the Jewish people. In addition to his Zionism, Einstein was also a militant pacifist during and following World War I. He was critical of nationalism and committed to the idea of a single world government without any need for armed forces. Throughout the 1920s, he participated in numerous peace campaigns and wrote articles on international peace and disarmament. However, when Hitler's National Socialist party came to power in Germany in 1933, Einstein began to rethink his rigid pacifist stance. When the Nazis began targeting him in their anti-Semitic propaganda, Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy of Sciences and accepted a full-time position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. Einstein departed further from his pacifism during World War II, when he actively participated in the war effort, working for the US Navy and writing a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939, in which he urged him to accelerate the nation's nuclear weaponry development. However, Einstein never advocated the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and worked until his death in 1955 in a campaign for international peace and nuclear disarmament.

Einstein's greatest contributions to physics were his synthesis of mechanics and electrodynamics through his relativity theory, and his challenge to Newtonian physics through his quantum theory. However, the impact of his ideas was not limited to science: Einstein's achievements influenced philosophy, art, literature, and countless other disciplines. As an individual passionate in his convictions and outspoken in his politics, Einstein transformed the image of the scientist in the twentieth century. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that TIME Magazine selected Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century," hailing him as "genius, political refugee, humanitarian, locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe."

By: Aman Sherwani