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Fiction writer, art critic Madhur Kapila passes away
Her first novel Bhatke Rahi dealt with the identity of a woman in a post-Partition family; she has to her credit three collections of short stories, which were translated into several languages.
Chandigarh Madhur Kapila, a well-regarded fiction writer in Hindi, and an art critic, passed away on Sunday morning after a cardiac arrest. She was 79 and is survived by daughters Kriti and Shruti, and son Ashish.
Born in Jalandhar, she was an early starter having penned a novel when she was just 12, based on the unhappy sights of Partition which she saw in her neighbourhood. She contributed regularly to Jalandhar newspapers and after her marriage to late journalist Ramesh Kapila, she made her home in Chandigarh, where she had been settled 1977. It was here that she blossomed as a music and art critic writer for leading Hindi newspapers. Music was her passion, having been initiated into listening to the best of Hindustani classical music, at the Harvallabh Sangeet Sammelan, as a child.
Her short fiction in Hindi was regularly published in literary journals like ‘Naya Gyanudaya’, ‘Vartmaan Sahitya’, ‘Hatha Kram’ and Vaagarth to name a few.
Her first novel Bhatke Rahi dealt with the identity of a woman in a post-Partition family (Prabhat Prakashan, 1964), and the last published novel “Samne ka Asmaan” portrays the lives of three individuals, bringing forth the untold stories of different social strata working in a theatre group in the city. It was published by Bharaiya Jnanpith in 2010. She has to her credit three collections of short stories, which were translated into several languages.
She was a member of the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi for over three decades. In 2011, Kapila was presented with a Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi award for her outstanding contribution to literature.
