FOR a period of thirteen months between December 2009 and December 2010 I was the Urdu publisher at Oxford University Press, Pakistan. Of the books selected for publication during this time, some works held, beyond their literary importance, a personal significance for me, and I considered it a private honour to be involved in their publication. The collected works of modern Urdu literature’s great master Mohmmed Khalid Akhtar (1920-2002) was one such project.

Mohammed Khalid Akhtar was a novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic, letter writer and author of travelogues. He was also one of Urdu’s most sophisticated humourists and a masterful translator whose translations of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are important additions to Urdu literature. Greats like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ibn-i-Insha held his work in high regard: Faiz famously called Mohammed Khalid Akhtar’s Chakiwara Mein Wisal the best novel written in Urdu (it has now been translated into English by Bilal Tanweer). During his lifetime, Khalid Sahab did not receive the recognition that was his due — a collective misfortune for many readers of Urdu literature who could have been introduced to his work sooner. But this work is now available in a standard text for which the OUP Series Editor Ajmal Kamal’s work deserves credit; and readers can now engage with this diverse and rich body of work.

I wrote the following piece in 2002 when I learned of Mohammed Khalid Akhtar’s passing. In his last days I was not in Pakistan and had lost contact with him. This essay was never published. Now that his works have been launched, I would like to share it as a small personal introduction of Khalid sahab, my friend.