On a cold, foggy morning in March 1950, the beautiful Hina
Kauser gathers up the folds of her burqa, picks up one of
her twin sons, and runs back to her home in Old Delhi like
she’s possessed by a jinn. She cannot leave for Lahore with her
husband, Azizuddin Khan, because she is the daughter of Qudsia
Begum, the great grand-daughter of the last Mughal emperor.
Hina and Qudsia must uphold the traditions of their great
ancestors. Oblivious, Azizuddin boards the train to Pakistan
with their other son. Like India and Pakistan, twin nations born
of the same womb, Shiraz and Aijaz grow up in Ballimaran
and Lahore – separated by a destiny beyond their control.
In a novel where the real and the magical rub shoulders, Emperor Babur is a key character,
now more poet than conqueror. Still searching for his lost Hindustan, dreaming of a reunited
India, Babur’s spirit hovers over the pages. By turn philosophical and ruminative, intensely
erotic and unabashedly ribald, The Golden Pigeon is a subtle appraisal of the forces that
divide communities and nations. This story will sweep you up in its grand scale and carry
you to the last page with unflagging momentum.
About The Author:
Shahid Siddiqui published the path-breaking
fortnightly Waqiat while still a first-year
student in Delhi College, and launched Nai
Duniya as a weekly magazine in 1973. He has
also taught political science at Deshbandhu
College in Delhi from 1974 to 1986, when he
resigned to pursue his journalistic and political
activities. Shahid was a founder member of the
Student Federation of India in Delhi University,
and joined the Congress in 1991, and has 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. He was elected
to the Rajya Sabha in 2002, and has also been
vice-chairman of the National Council for the
Promotion of the Urdu language. Shahid was the
first journalist to be arrested under TADA in 1986.
