Altaf Fatima (born 1927 in Lucknow, British India) was an Urdu novelist, short-story writer, and teacher (specializing in Muhammad Iqbal). Her novel Dastak Na Do ("Do not knock") is regarded as one of the defining works in the Urdu language. An adaptation was presented on Pakistan television and an abridged translation was serialised by the Karachi monthly, Herald.
Altaf Fatima was the second of four children born in a Muslim household in Lucknow, India, to Mohammad Fazle Amin and his wife Mumtaz Jahan.
She was living in Lahore, Pakistan at the end of her life, to where she had retired as a professor of Urdu, but continued her literary work.
Altaf Fatima's novel Dastak Na Do has been translated into English by Rukhsana Ahmed.
Rajinder Singh Bedi was an Urdu writer, playwright (who later became a Hindi film director), screenwriter and dialogue writer. He belonged to Progressive Writers' Movement and is considered one of the leading 20th century progressive writers of Urdu fiction.
Spanning fifty years and 72 short stories, his literary career was marked with versatility and represented one of the finest creative writing in Urdu literature. His stories "Garam Coat" and "Lajvanti" are considered among the masterpieces of Urdu short stories. His later collections of short stories were "Kokh Jali" and "Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo" and a collection of plays "Saat Khel".
