Menka Shivdasani: You were born in Hyderabad (Sindh), which is now a part of Pakistan. It was only one of several dozen awards that came her way in the course of her illustrious career. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1982 for her autobiography Muhinje Hayati-a-ja-Sona-Rupa-Warq (The Golden and Silver Leaves of My Life, 1980). Hiranandani’s writing, which spans several genres – fiction, essays, literary criticism, drama, biography and poetry – has been translated into a variety of languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Marathi. Among her works is Learn Sindhi within Ten Days, a book that has seen several editions since it was first published in 1977. Hiranandani fought relentlessly to rejuvenate these weakening roots. This is a fact that immensely saddened Hiranandani, who fought for decades to preserve the language and culture against onslaughts that included political indifference and attempts to do away with the script in favour of Devanagari. The world has claimed the contemporary Sindhi few youngsters speak the language, let alone write it.
The tragedy is that, like most of her other books, it received little attention, even within the Sindhi community. The book, Sach Tha Mard Chavan (The Tale of Truth), released by her good friend Ram Jethmalani (who was Union minister for Law at that time), was a collection of five essays about the politicians of pre-Partition India, and the mistakes that she believed they committed.
In November 1999, when she was bed-ridden with more illnesses than she cared to name, Hiranandani released her 57th book at a private ceremony in her home. As senior Sindhi poet Hari Dilgir said once of the feisty author, "Popati has a knack of using her boli (language) as a goli (bullet)." More than 50 years after Partition, when this writer spoke to her, her fragile 75-year-old body bristled at the memory of what happened back then her dimming eyes gleamed with rage her voice began to crack as she relived the unspeakable indignities that occurred. Sindhi writers like Popati Hiranandani, however, have ensured that the world does not forget.
For many who were forced to cope with the trauma, Partition is now no more than a bad memory to be tucked away into the deepest recesses of their hearts and minds in the hope that they can eventually pretend it never happened. Members of the community have blended into international cultures. Today, the Sindhi community has moved on, through hard work and sheer determination.
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