As a matter of fact few writers got the Padma awards this year. I remember in childhood the name of Kashmiri Lal Zakir in most of the magazines including Biswin Sadi for which he regularly wrote.
In those days the magazines like Shama, Biswin Sadi and Bano were full of non-Muslim Urdu writers. Now Hindu and Sikh writers are rare. Kashmiri Lal Zakir has been active with the Haryana Urdu Academy.
Zakir has written extensively on Haali and is credit with rediscovering the literary giant of yore. He is a prolific writer and one expects that he would continue to enrich Urdu literature in the years to come.
