Correction

Writers do make mistakes, as you know. But when I make one, it is important to put the record straight, of course. The response to my last week’s column on these pages (‘Ibn-i-Safi: the imam of Urdu detective fiction’) was not only warm and heartening for me but a bit educative too. Ahmed Safi Sahib, Ibn-i-Safi’s son, was kind enough to point out a couple of inaccuracies that crept in. Nooh Narvi, says he, was Ibn-i-Safi’s maternal uncle and not his maternal grandfather. Like a few other readers, he also has mentioned that the gentleman with whose collaboration Ibn-i-Safi launched Nikhat was not Ali Abbas Hussaini, the well-known progressive writer, but another fellow named Abbas Hussaini, who ran a book-selling and publishing business at Allahabad’s railway station.

I stand corrected and educated and am grateful to the readers who took out their precious time and e-mailed me. It also made my belief firmer that Ibn-i-Safi was a very popular writer and his fans miss him greatly even today, 28 years after his death.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com