Account of a 1940 Sehree in Amritsar by A. Hameed

A. Hameed (1928 – 2011), my Maamoon Jaan and an Urdu language novelist and short story writer of the Progressive Writers Movement, was born in Amritsar and emigrated to Lahore, Pakistan during the 1947 Partition of British India. Here, he is seen as a young man who had published his first Urdu language novel, Derbay, and his first collection of Urdu short stories, Manzil Manzil.

Sardaar Begum (Aapo Jee), novelist A. Hameed’s mother, seen in this photograph taken in the early 1950s in her home in Misri Shah, Lahore, Pakistan around the time of the marriage of A. Hameed to Rehana Qamar, a Kinnaird College graduate.

Khaleefa Abdul Azeez, father of A. Hameed (1928-2011) seen here recounting the events of the Jallianwaalaa Massacre to A. Hameed in his house at Garhee Shaahoo, Lahore, Pakistan, in the 1960s.

A. Hameed and his wife, Mrs. Rehana Qamar, at the rooftop of their Fleming Road, Lahore flat in the early 1950s.

A. Hameed (1928-2011) with his younger sister and my mother, Mrs. Ishrat Shafi (1935-2025) at their Misri Shah residence in Lahore, Pakistan in the early 1950s. My mother got married to my father, Khawaja Mohammad Shafi (1927-2016) shortly after this photograph was taken.

My aunt, Mrs. Sarwar Malik, with her husband, Captain (retd) Mumtaz Malik who was a reporter with Nawa e Waqt daily newspaper and worked for the British War Propaganda department in Columbo, Sri Lanka during World War II and also served with Mumtaz Mufti (Urdu short story writer and novelist of the Progressive Writers Movement) at Azad Kashmir Radio Station in Lehtraar, near Murree Hills after Partition (1947).

A 1960s photograph taken at my parent’s home in Samanabad, Lahore, Pakistan. From the left: My father, Khawaja Mohammad Shafi, my mother Mrs. Ishrat Shafi, and my Maamoon Jaan A. Hameed. In the foreground from the left: Farida Shafi, my sister, Rafat Azeem Shafi, my brother, Imran Shafi, my brother and A. Hameed’s daughter who has now passed away due to an illness.