While going through the letters written by Noon Meem Rashid to his wife, one is struck by the writer’s highly poetic style. But that is hardly unexpected as Rashid was a greatpoet. The reader is also moved by his highly passionate expressions of love for his wife. But that, too, is not surprising as they were then newlyweds and had been, as the letters tell us, in love with each other before their marriage.

However, these letters reveal something which is rather surprising and unexpected. Rashid, who had during his literary career rebelled from the traditional style of composing poetry and adopted free verse as a vehicle for expression, had an extremelytraditional attitude in his personal life.

He had neither the will to disobey the elders in his family, nor the courage to deviate from what was then considered customary.

In those days, and perhaps even today in some sections of our society, a new bride was not expected to live with her husband independently. She lived with her own parents or the parents of her husband in their ancestral village or town while the husband lived alone in the city where he worked.

Rashid’s wife Safia, who was also his cousin, stayed back either in Sargodha or in Gujranwala with her parents or in-laws, while Rashid lived in Multan where he had a job in the commisioner’s office.

Though Rashid had a strong desire to have Safia with him in Multan, he could not dare to deviate from custom and earn the displeasure of his elders. He did, however, consistently give vent to his frustration with the situation in his letters to her.

Apart from his vigorous expression of love for his wife, the only other matter which has been referred to in these letters is his association with Allama Mashriqi’s Khaksar movement. And that reference, too, has crept into the correspondence only because Safia did not like Rashid’s participation in the movement as she felt that it might take his attention away from her.

In several of his letters Rashid has maintained that he was associated with the movement as he thought that it would ‘do something to ameliorate the condition of Muslims’. But he assured Safia with all the force at his command that his politicalinvolvement would in no way affect his passion for her.

From the dates noted in the letters it appears that Rashid used to write to his wife every third or fourth day, except when he was with her on leave from work. However, there is a long gap of about three years from November 1938 to October 1941 when he was working at All India Radio in Delhi. Perhaps the compiler of these letters did not have access to the letters covering that period, or it was not considered appropriate to publish them.

In any case, there is some noticeable change in the tone and contents of the letters written by that time. Though Rashid’s expressions of love were still there, he also enquires about the health of the two little daughters that had been born by then. In addition, he includes mundane affairs such as the search for a good cook to prepare his food.

It seems that Rashid was not given to discussing office matters with his wife, as many of us are. He was by then in charge of the drama section at the radio station in Delhi. In those days, some of the most prominent fiction writers of Urdu, including Krishn Chandr, Sa’adat Hasan Manto and Upender Nath Ashk, were associated with the station as drama writers.

It is said that Manto had developed such serious differences with Rashid that he gave up play-writing and moved to Mumbai to join the film industry. However, the letters do not contain any references to that, or any other office-related issue.

Rashid maintained a traditional approach in his personal life till he left the country in the 1960s. Two years after Safia’s death he married an Italian woman. Subsequently, he created a stir by making a will that stated that his body should be cremated after his death.

The letters under review have been compiled in a book form by Rashid’s daughter, Nasreen Rashid.

As observed by her in the introductory note, they reveal aspects of Rashid’s personal life that had so far remained unknown.

The book also contains photographs of some of poet’s close relatives.

Noon Meem Rashid ke Khutoot:Apni ahliya ke naam(letters)Compiled by Nasreen RashidA.R. Printers, Islamabad226pp. Rs300