Murataza Razvi

When I first saw him..hmm...he was one of the guest speakers in the Granta Magazine ceremony held in British Council. 


The Issue no. 112 of Granta magazine was on Pakistan and all the writers included in the issue were from Pakistan. 


All the speakers were seated and was ready to talk highly about the writers selected by Granta.


John Freeman(Editor) said that he searched so hard and it took him almost a year to unite and collect such writers who are very popular in Pakistan...hmm...


And there and then…Murtaza Razvi spoke up… 


He said something like…sorry…this is not actual literature you picked from Pakistan. Our literature is much more decent and Granta have not touched even one of the finest writers of Pakistan. 


And I said…’bravo…this man has courage to speak his heart out…hmm…he is brave’ 


How Granta picked those writers and who was the one who gave GRANTA the advise to choose those writers is another story. 


However...if you go through the magazine details you will see that those are not the cream of the writers Pakistan is blessed with. 


Murtaza Razvi was right…Granta failed to actually touch our literature. 


After the session I went to him…congratulate him on his out spoken speech and asked him for his card…on which at first he gave me someone else’s card…and asked me later to return…he had his own card in his hand by that time and I smiled on his simplicity. 


Recently...I am shocked to read about his murder in a personal blog of a fellow blogger. 


I am also very displeased on the silent acceptance of his murder by the media and the news papers. 


Isn’t sad that the person who was so out spoken for the truth has no one to speak for him? 


May Allah rest his soul in peace ! 
May Allah give his family courage to go through the pain. 
Ameen.