Bapsi Sidhwa Day

The mayor of Houston declared July 26, 2005 Bapsi Sidhwa Day. Though Houston has honored the Zarathushti community in the past by pronouncing March 21, 2000 as Zoroastrian Day and December 28, 2000 Zoroastrian Congress Day, there has been no Zoroastrian individual who has been similarly honored, recalls Houston resident and community librarian Aban Rustomji. Sidhwa was honored as a writer of international renown who has chosen to make her home in Houston.

"Houston has been enriched by the presence and contributions of its residents of Pakistani ancestry, and is especially proud to be recipient of their many significant contributions to the cultural, civic, economic and spiritual life of our city.

"The distinguished international writer has published four novels: An American Brat, Cracking India, The Bride and The Crow Eaters, and she has been translated into several European and Asian languages. She was born in Karachi, brought up in Lahore and she now lives in Houston, Texas,” noted the mayor’s proclamation, listing the many international awards and citations that have come her way: the Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe/Harvard, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest national honor in the arts, and the LiBeraturepreis in Germany. She has also been inducted into the Zoroastrian Hall of Fame at the Seventh Congress in 2000.

Acknowledging the honor bestowed on her the gracious Sidhwa replied, "Houston is a great cosmopolitan city and I don’t just happen to live in Houston, I choose to live in Houston; I have spent 18 wonderful years here.

Sidhwa and councilman M. J. Khan display the proclamation

"Houston has energy (I don’t mean only petrol) and a generosity of spirit that makes things happen I have found in no other American city. I’ve lived in Atlanta and I spent two years in Cambridge Massachusetts. I find Houston an easy and affordable city to live in. The Houstonians are laid-back and friendly and I like its climate. After Lahore and Delhi it feels like a hill-resort.

"I love Houston for its rich cultural diversity, and the artistic institutions like theater, ballet and opera it supports so generously. We have the Vietnamese, Chinese, Latin American and hordes of South Asians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc in Houston. That says a lot for the city: you can trust South Asians to recognize a good thing when they see it. All these communities have prospered.

"One gets absorbed in the artistic community here and at the same time each group of people can develop within their own culture and traditions as well – Houston gives the diverse groups space to maintain and develop their own cultural and artistic identities. Indian dancing has almost become mainstream American in Houston.

"I was welcomed by the Houston community of writers and Houston Press welcomed me with a five-page spread. I review books for the Houston Chronicle, and when I received the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Award, and when the film Earth, based on my book Cracking India was released in Houston, the Houston Chronicle gave it a wonderful splash. It ran for a month or more at the River Oaks Theater and almost six months at the Greenway Theater.

"Once again I thank the city of Houston, and I am overwhelmed to have Mayor Bill White proclaim July 26, 2005, as Bapsi Sidhwa Day in Houston Texas.”

According to an e-mail from Dr Zareen Karani Araoz, Sidhwa’s play, An American Brat, will be produced in Houston by the Stages Repertory Theater in the autumn of 2006. It is said to be the first time a major theater company in Houston is developing and producing a full length play by a South Asian playwright.