Okhla residents mourn death of Saadiya Dehalvi
Okhla residents mourn death of 62-year-old Saadiya Dehalvi. A resident of Nizamuddin, she was known as storyteller, activist and food connoisseur, who lost years of battle to cancer on Wednesday. She died at her home.
She was known among Okhla residents, who years ago grew up reading Shama Urdu magazine as she belonged to that family.
Paying tributes to her, well known Urdu journalist Shahid Siddique wrote on his timeline that Saadiya edited women’s monthly Bano and was a social activist. “A true Dili wali, a great cook and…,” he wrote.
Many readers came to know about Saadiya’s battle with cancer from social media after her son Arman Ali Dehlvi posted a “cancer treatment fundraiser request” for his mother on August 1.
After coming to know about her death, many Okhla residents shared the information on their timelines with condolence messages pouring in on the virtual world.
City chronicler Rana Safvi said: “I love her writing, especially her book The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi. I used to often see her at the Dargah… With her gone, the dargahs will feel empty,” reported The Indian Express.
Sadia wrote several other books and also wrote a hugely popular TV show, Amma and Family, in which Zohra Sehgal played the role.
Besides writing, she was a woman entrepreneur who in 2017 founded most probably Delhi’s first roadside kebab shop, Al Kauser, in Chanakyapuri, with her mother in 1979.
Sadia was a Delliwala who will be missed by many, wrote her fans on their timelines.
