Hoori Noorani is an artist, linguist and a publisher all rolled into one. Born in Karachi on July 4, 1958, Hoori hails from a progressive family that migrated to Karachi from Mumbai after partition. Her late father, Malik Noorani, established Maktaba-e-Danyal, a publishing house of great repute and Pakistan Law House where one can find almost any thing related to law.
Her late mother, Mumtaz Noorani was president of the Pakistan Democratic Women’s Association (PDWA). Their apartment in Qasr-e-Zainab on Club Road was frequented by eminent writers such as Syed Sibte Hasan and great revolutionaries such as Hasan Nasir who were tortured to death in 1960 during the era of General Ayub Khan.
In the early 50s, the doyen of the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) Syed Sajjad Zaheer would also visit and often stay at the historic apartment in Qasr-e-Zainab.
Thus, Hoori was brought up in an environment where progressive ideas were nurtured and people were taught to dream and love humanity, especially the down-trodden.
Hoori did her A-levels from the Karachi Grammar School (KGS) in 1976 and left for Moscow for higher studies. In 1983, she graduated from Friendship University, Moscow, in philology.
Inspired by classical Russian literature and having excellent command over the language, she taught it at the Friendship House, Karachi, for a while after she returned home, but then joined the Maktaba-e-Danyal. “Abba was ill. He would take me along with him to the office in order to train me. In 1986, he died and, thereafter, I took charge of the publishing house and book shop,” she says.
Brought up in an environment where everybody had an affinity towards art and literature, Hoori learnt classical dance from the maestro, Ghanshyam, when she was only six years old. She also took dancing classes from the well-known classical dancer, Sheema Kirmani.
Hoori also remained associated with the theatre group, Dastak, that played Galileo in the 80s and earned a distinction in the realm of art and theatre in Pakistan. Those were the days when there was a siege on the press, when general suffocation was prevalent and that is why the play attracted a large number of writers, students and activists. Hoori also translated Henry Borvik’s Interview in Buenos Aires from Russian to Urdu.
“I am inspired by great Russian writers such as Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Pushkin,” she says.
Maktaba-e-Danyal, the publishing house managed by Hoori, is situated on Abdullah Haroon Road in Saddar and is known for publishing quality literature. But Hoori points out that book publishing was facing a lot of problems. “The readership is confined to a small number of people due to the abysmal literacy rate here. On top of that book publishing is not recognised as an industry in Pakistan which makes it impossible to avail loans from the banks,” she laments.
“The cost of production is very high and since the books are published in a small number the economy of scale can’t be achieved,” she says.
But despite that, books by the eminent humourist Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi and anthropologist and historian Syed Sibte Hasan sell like hot cakes. Similarly, Dr Akhtar Husain Raipuri is also a best seller, she discloses.
“The most popular books of Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi are Chiragh Tale, Khakam Badhan, Zarguzisht, Aab-e-Gum while Syed Sibte Hasan’s books most popular books are Mazi ke Mazaar, Moosa se Marx Tak, Inqalab-e-Iran, Battle of Ideas in Pakistan etc,” she says.
“The sales of books get a boost when book fairs are held. Another outlet is public libraries but sadly enough, there is no substantive funding for libraries in Sindh. However, in Punjab public libraries do spend money on books,” she says.
Hoori is married to Nadeem Khalid, an entrepreneur who has similar progressive leanings, and has two children.
