Stories by Aamer Hussein

COLUMN: HYDERABAD’S ZEENATH SAJIDA

I first visited Hyderabad Deccan with my father just before I turned 13. I had a first cousin there whose children... Published 30 Nov, 2025 06:41am

COLUMN: RELATIVE TRUTHS

Many years ago, an editor at Critical Muslim asked me to contribute an essay to an issue she was preparing, on the... Published 28 Sep, 2025 07:23am

COLUMN: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSLATION

I hadn’t given the matter much thought until today, but I notice that most of my last several columns have been about works in... Published 27 Jul, 2025 08:19am

COLUMN: Nicky, Ling and the Chinese connection

November, 2023. On the top floor of the Shard, a very modern building near the Thames, there’s a prize-giving for... Updated 27 Jul, 2025 08:18am

COLUMN: IN PRAISE OF MARIMA BA

My copy of So Long a Letter is dated September 1986. That year, I was feeding my imagination on what we then quaintly referred to Published 23 Mar, 2025 08:35am

COLUMN: TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA

On a fine, cold November afternoon, I am sitting at a restaurant with Naila Khan, a friend from Dhaka, who is ... Updated 17 Nov, 2024 11:23am

COLUMN: ‘OH HEART, FREE YOURSELF AND LIVE’

Autumn, 1979. At a church in Hammersmith, [London,] Ted Hughes reads from his collection Crow, which my friend buys... Published 15 Sep, 2024 08:34am

COLUMN: THE LITERARY COURTESAN

One Sunday morning in Karachi — I was eight — I heard my mother telling my father about a film she’d seen that Sunday morning,... Published 14 Jul, 2024 08:51am

COLUMN: THE ‘ISLAND OF THE LITERATI’

“This tale is steeped in the colours of the East and its connection to the conventions of Urdu literature is so deep,” writes... Published 12 May, 2024 09:56am

COLUMN: THE STORIES OF HAJIRA MASROOR

“I’m puzzled. You have Khadija and not Hajira,” Qurratulain Hyder — who mentored my progress in reading... Published 10 Mar, 2024 07:25am

COLUMN: MASTERS OF COLD CLIMES

I am homesick, I wrote to a friend in Kashmir who hasn’t left his native town in about a year, and is now ... Published 07 Jan, 2024 07:14am

COLUMN: VISITORS IN AUTUMN

Sometimes the weight of the world’s problems forces you to seek the refuge of memory and fiction. And the uncertain weather,... Published 05 Nov, 2023 08:23am

COLUMN: THIS EARTH OF MANKIND

Late last Sunday evening I was browsing Netflix for a good film to watch when, to my surprise, I found a screen adaptation of one Published 30 Apr, 2023 08:23am

COLUMN: RESONANCE OF FALLING LEAVES

About 30 years ago, when I plunged into the ocean of Urdu fiction with the enthusiasm of someone learning to swim, I asked... Published 26 Jun, 2022 11:16am

COLUMN: LEGENDS AND THEIR TELLERS

“Myths, legends, tales, they are all part of our heritage which mark the way we think, live and see the world,”... Published 08 May, 2022 09:17am

COLUMN: THE BIRTH OF SPRING AND AUTUMN

There’s a tree, not far from my home, that blooms for about a fortnight. No one has yet been able to tell me... Published 13 Mar, 2022 07:12am

COLUMN: REREADING BASHEER

After a sunny Christmas day in Karachi, I left the following dawn for London, aware of the cold, the miniscule days... Published 23 Jan, 2022 07:06am

COLUMN: THE LOVE OF EVERYDAY THINGS

There isn’t only love for a person; there is your love for your everyday things. I love nature above all. It attracts me more... Published 05 Dec, 2021 07:01am

COLUMN: THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSES

Akbar, my occasional partner at literary Snakes and Ladders, wants to write a story with me as its main character. It’s taken him Published 17 Oct, 2021 06:39am

COLUMN: THE RETURN OF ATTIA HOSAIN

Last Monday evening — three days before her novel Sunlight on a Broken Column and her collection of stories ... Published 29 Aug, 2021 07:06am