Habib Tanvir began writing his memoirs in 2004, at the age of 81. They span 31 years, concluding in 1954 when Tanvir moved to Delhi permanently. In addition to talking about the wealth of characters he came in contact with in that period, his poetry and his political and gustatory inclinations, his notes contain remembrances of the love he shared with the different women that came into his life. One of these women was the theatre director Moneeka Misra, who eventually became his wife and the mother of their daughter Nageen. However, another woman who receives almost passing mention in the memoirs, was perhaps just as significant. This was Jill MacDonald, whom Tanvir simply describes as someone “who was going to come to India with my child in her womb,” and who, in 1964, became the mother of Tanvir’s older child, Anna. Tanvir’s memoirs were written in Hindustani, and were published in 2013 in an English translation by Mahmood Farooqi. When the book came to MacDonald’s attention, she was dismayed at his account of the close relationship they had shared. She collected the letters they had sent each other in the nine years that their relationship had lasted and composed her own brief memoir, which The Caravan is publishing today, on the occasion of Tanvirs birth anniversary.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 15:25:49 +0000
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