"Chor" by Rasheed Jahan (1905-1952)

Rashid Jahan (25 August 1905 – 29 July 1952) came from a highly illustrious family of educators. Her father Sheikh Abdullah, an avid social reformer, founded the Women's College at Aligarh Muslim University. Jahan grew up in an enlightened and evolved environment. Her father ran a widely-circulated women's journal called Khatun (Woman) and her mother would regularly contribute to that. Her literally training with a socialist bent, began pretty much at home. After receiving her early education in Aligarh, she went to Lucknow to earn a degree in Science from Isabella Thoburn College and then moved on to earn her medical degree from Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi. Like all her other stories, this "Chor" is also a fable, a metaphor of society and its hypocrisy and places the moral choice in the hands of her readers. I hope that through this translation, I serve some purpose of carrying forward and spreading Rashid Jahan's intent in my own, very modest way.