Page |1

ABOUT AUTHOR-ZAHIDA HINA

Life
Zahida was born on October 5, 1946 in the Sasaram town of Bihar, India. After the partition of India, her father, Muhammad Abul Khair, immigrated to Pakistan and settled in Karachi, where Zahida was brought up and educated. She wrote her first story when she was nine years old. She graduated from University of Karachi, and her first essay was published in the monthly Insha in 1962. She chose journalism as a career in mid 60s. In 1970, she married the well-known poet Jon Elia. Zahida Hina was associated with the daily Jang from 1988 until 2005, when she moved to the Daily Express, Pakistan . She now lives in Karachi. Zahida hina also worked in Radio Pakistan, BBC Urdu and Voice of America. Since 2006, she writes a weekly column Pakistan Diary in Rasrang, Sunday magazine of India's largest read Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar. This column is immensely popular in India.

Work
Zahida Hina has written more than two thousand journalistic articles. Many of her short stories have been translated into English, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi. Some of her important titles include: Qaidi sans leta hai (collection of short stories) Rah main ajal hai (collection of short stories) Na junoon raha na pari rahi (collection of short stories) Dard ka Shajar (Novel) Dard-e-Ashob (Novel) Zard Paton ka ban (TV Drama) She is known critic of nuclear technology for any purpose (military or civilian).

Awards
Faiz Award Literary Performance Award Saghir Siddiqui Adabi Award K. P. Award Sindh Speaker Award SAARC Literary Award

Page |2

PREFACE:The protagonist of story was an educated woman. She was the wife of an army officer. She had great political idealogy . Before her marriage when she was as a college student, she had good friends with whom she used to talk of literature and politics, used to visit the slums of the poor and the destitute. Later she went abroad for her higher studies. There she met her future husband. He had also gone there for some training course. She fell in love with him. When she mentioned the subject to her brother, he expressed grave doubts about her picture as the wife of an army officer. As saying. love can defeat all arguments . She defeated her brother with her arguments. Shortly afterwards they were married and returned home. By the time she returned home with her husband , she had been away from her friends for five years. Though she tried to restore the same relations with her friends, she wasnt able to. They wouldnt trust her anymore. They regarded her as a TROJEN HORSE. So she felt her friends were stifled and so was she afflicted with love. A few weeks after their return, she read in the news paper that some of her friends were arrested and the cause was handed over to military tribunal. She tried to talk about it to her husband but he avoided the subject. Later she heard one of her friends had died under the torture had been buried in some obscure graveyard. Her grave carried no inspiration. She wept once news for many days .

SUMMARY
This story begins with a day in the protagonists house .it was a night time.Her husband and his friends were sitting in the drawing room.She was also there with them for some times. She felt paying in legs.So,she appolagised to them and came out of the verandah. On the book shelf of the drawing room there was a photograph of hillock. One side of the hillock had been sliced to look like a wall.In the wall there was a gate with iron bars.Beyoned the gate was an arched tunnel, leading to a narrow dark cave and beyond it was eternity and an unending sleep. She was also in the picture,peering into the tunnel,fecing the cane with her but to the camara. And next to the photograph there was a brange statue, the statue of the prisoner in the cave.the prisoner was an old philospher who spent. Thirty days and thirty nights here waiting for his cup of poison. Opposite the book. Came there wasa t.u cabinate stood a militory decoration in a black frame,only a few weeks earlier her husband had been given this award for meritorious services. That night when she was walking on barefoot in verandah , she was shocked to hear her husband and his friends conversation. His friends commented on the contradiction of the symbols.

Page |3 The photo of meritorious award. Then her husband warned him not to talk about that loud, if his wife would hear , there would be hell. Then she understand from their words that her husband was the one of who torture subjected to her friends. It was her husband who rushed the movement she had been attached to since adolescence. It was the man with whom she had discussed her political views as well as literature and arts. They were talking about how they tortured a man whom she admired so much, how his finger nails were pulled out, for how many hours he was stretched out on ice, how many electrical shocks convulsed his body, how he was made to crawl like a beast, immersed in excrement, how he was hung up with heavy weights tied to his feet and wrist. On knowing all these suddenly she felt sick and vomited what was inside her. All these days she believed her husband, unstained of these evil doings. Now it was proved wrong. She was in ignorance. Her husband was a wolf like in sheeps clothing. Now the big question before her was TO BE OR NOT TO BE with her husband. The story abruptly ends here leaving it to the readers imagination.

CONCLUSION :-when she came to no that she was cheated by her husband ,she was in a
dinama TO BE ARE NOT TO BE with her husband. But the love on her husband make her to continue her remaining life with her huband with out any secrets.

MORAL :-dont cheat the others whom you love the most, and dont cheat the others by whom
you love the most. But PARENTS are the FIRST LOVERS of their children.