Chatting with Daadi
By Zubeida Mustafa and Alexandra Wasti
Lightstone Publishers
ISBN: 978-969-716-312-0
46pp.

Daadi Aur Hum
By Zubeida Mustafa and Alexandra Wasti
Kohi Goth Publications
ISBN: 9789692273336
73pp.

'Z M’ (Zubeida Mustafa) called at her usual time, which was around 11 in the morning.

She was excited and told me she had been corresponding with Alexandra Wasti, her nephew’s daughter, who lived in Canada. She added with a laugh, “Alexandra thinks I am one of the wisest people on earth, and she has sent me questions to answer, which I now believe can be turned into a dialogue book. Do you think it’s a good idea?”

I said yes. “In that case,” she replied, “will you read the proofs and help me since my eyesight is failing rapidly?” I agreed and told her the honour would be mine.

She sent me the emails which carried the questions and her answers. I began putting them together in a Word document. Font size 20, Arial Black. It was what she used. To facilitate her reading, she had asked me to create a black background for the document, which allowed her to decipher the words because of the contrast. At home, her sister, Dr Fatima Jawad, helped her.

She clearly told me that she would not name people in the book. Instead, she would use their initials for privacy. I was surprised when she mentioned Patti Smith and told me the lyrics — “Where have you been, my blue-eyed son” — of the Bob Dylan song Patti Smith sang when she accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature on his behalf.

What affected ZM the most was that Patti Smith forgot the lyrics halfway through, and how she made a comeback. “No one is infallible — not even the best of us — and people are generally forgiving if the person who errs doesn’t try to cover his failure by adopting an attitude of ‘I know best.’ Be natural, humble and kind to others, and others will be kind to you.”

The late journalist Zubeida Mustafa’s last book, a conversation with a teenage niece, may be slender but is worth its weight in gold

Alexandra posed questions which defied time. She was continents away, in her late teens, ready for college, living in a world of AI. Yet the questions she posed demanded answers. Answers which were given by ZM with candour, honesty and wisdom. ZM believed that, in a bewildering, changing world order of AI and her pet peeve: social media, the only way to remain connected to the young was to talk to them. And that is what she does in this book. She communicates. She leaves behind her experiences and lessons learnt — some the hard way.

No matter how much the world changes, these questions will remain relevant, and her answers will allow us to make better choices. Questions such as, “How can a young person find happiness?” are timeless and ZM’s reply, “Nothing gives one more happiness than making others happy. Once you learn this art, there will be no limit to it. Try it and see how the magic works.”

As we worked on the book, I realised this slender manuscript was worth its weight in gold. I found myself going back to certain answers to imbibe those qualities. What humbled me was how open she was about her physical disability; she was born with club feet. She writes in great detail of its impact on her as a child, her miraculous surgery, and her meeting with the doctor years later.

Finally, the day arrived, our work was complete, and we were set to meet Ms Ameena Saiyid, the managing director of Lightstone Publishers, who had agreed to publish the book. As was ZM’s style, she arrived a few minutes early to pick me up, and I was ready for her at my gate. She called, and instead of answering my phone, I opened the door and slipped in beside her. I said I knew she would be early.

She threw back her glorious head with its short crop of silver hair, catching the sunlight, and laughed aloud. A laugh that rose from somewhere deep inside her, full of joy that spread like silver stardust and settled on us like confetti. Then she said, “How are you?”

She was one of the few people for whom this wasn’t just a greeting; she meant it. She truly wanted to know how you were. And you could tell her without being judged. She was not only a wonderful raconteur but a truly great listener.

We headed towards Korangi with her constant companion, a white foldable walking stick, between us. She kept asking me, “Are you sure you know the way?” and I kept saying yes, only to miss the turning. Her irritation didn’t last long. We were soon greeted with a lot of love and affection by Ameena herself and Ms Nadia Ghani, the editor.

On our drive back, she said to me, “When God takes a faculty away, then He endows you with something else.” For her, it was a deeper insight into people and situations. She asked, “Will you promise me something?” and I said yes. “Will you make sure that this book gets published because it means a lot to me?” I immediately replied that nothing would happen to her and she shouldn’t say such things. She cut me off and said, “I want you to promise me.”

In hindsight, I can say she knew she wouldn’t live to see it.

This book resonates with her love for life, her joy in helping others, and her deep feelings for things and the human condition. I remember her saying, “I have used the word ‘rant’ in the last question, because that is what I intend to do till there is ‘an education utopia in Pakistan’ and I will always remain a firm believer in education in the mother tongue.”

She was hugely inspired in Chatting with Daadi by Dr Shershah Syed’s book for children in Urdu, Ammi Bataiyay, which in turn was inspired by S.M. Shahid’s book Abba Bataiyay.

She had a fertile imagination, to say the least, and we often pictured ourselves travelling with this book, with the Urdu translation Daadi Aur Hum in tow — beautifully translated by Noor us Sabah Baqar — and, of course, in all the rest of our provincial languages, speaking to children from various schools, so she could share her experiences and listen to theirs. This book is now being translated into the Sindhi language by Dr Pushpa. No matter how big or small, rich or poor, people mattered to Zubeida Mustafa — all voices were equally important.

This is a book full of wisdom and integrity, and a great starting point for a ‘chat’.

The reviewer is an Urdu-to-English translator

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, December 28th, 2025