Shahid Siddiqui
Birth—1951
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Shahid Siddiqui is the youngest son of Maulana Abdul Waheed Siddiqui. He opened his eyes in the old traditional cultural and literary atmosphere of Ballimaran, the street where Mirza Ghalib used to reside. He was born on 15th august 1951 in Haveli Hissamuddin. He literally opened his eyes in a newspaper office because at that time Maulana’s residence was on the first floor of the house from where Nai Duniya was published. When children played ankh micholi, Shahid was playing with pen and qalam, listening to the mushairas organized in the angan of Nai duniya office every Saturday.
Great poets like Josh Malihabadi ,Faiz Ahmad Faiz ,Firaq Gorakhpuri ,Jigar used to visit the office whenever they were in Delhi. Nai Duniya office at that point was the centre of all literary, political and cultural activities in the city. Shahid Siddiqui got both traditional Islamic education and modern English education. He was a vociferous reader from a very early age. He read Shakespear, Maugham, O’henry, Dickens and other English literary writers from the age of 7 .He started writing at the age of 10. Translated many stories and wrote articles in Huma Urdu digest. He translated Jules Verne’s around the world in 60 days. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering heights and many other books from English. Shahid Siddiqui did his high school from Anglo Arabic School Delhi and graduated from Delhi College in Political Science. He did his masters from University of Delhi in 1974. He created a new record in political philosophy by breaking the record of Dr. Karan Singh and getting 86.5% marks. He was immediately offered lecturer ship in Deshbandhu College Delhi. He taught political science from 1974 to 1986 when he resigned due to his busy schedule as a journalist. Shahid was involved with the publication of Huma Digest from the very first day. He published a unique and path breaking fortnightly Waqiat in 1970 when he was a student of first year in Delhi College. He launched Weekly Nai Duniya in 1973 when he was in the previous year of his masters at Delhi University. Since then he has written thousands of articles for Nai Duniya. He has interviewed every Indian prime minister and major political leader from Late Indra Gandhi to Manmohan Singh. He has traveled extensively and his travelogues have been published. Shahid Siddiqui also hitch hiked around the country in 1970 covering more then 6000 kilometers and wrote his diary which was published in Huma. Shahid Siddiqui taught political science at Deshbandhu College in Delhi from 1974 to 1986, when he resigned due to his journalistic and political activities. He has been involved in political activities from his student days, and was a founder member of the Student Federation of India in Delhi University. He joined the Congress Party in 1991 and held many organizational posts, including that of the chairman of the minority department. He joined the Samajwadi Party in 1999 and was its National General Secretary from 2000-08. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament, in 2002, and has also been vice-chairman of the National Council for the promotion of the Urdu language. He has been to jail many times for his fearless and candid writing, and was the first journalist to be arrested under TADA in 1986. Currently, Shahid Siddiqui has moved away from his political activities to focus on writing fiction. The Golden Pigeon is his first novel in English. He is now working on its sequel, The Revenge of the Falcons. |