Abid Surti or Aabid Surti (Hindi: आबिद सुरती; Gujarati: આબિદ સુરતી; born 5 May 1935) is a National Award winning Indian author who has earned accolades within India and abroad as a painter, author, cartoonist, journalist, playwright and screenwriter besides being a ‘one-man’ NGO out to save every drop of water.[1][2][3][4] He has won critical acclaim for multiple creative talents.[1] He was given National Award by Government of India in 1993 for one of his books.[5]
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He has written many books which include short stories, novel, plays, children's books and travelogues. Several of his books have been translated into various regional languages. He has also been writing for Hindi and Gujarati newspapers and magazines for over 40 years and has won a national award for his short story collection Teesri Aankh in 1993.[1] Aabid Surti became an author by accident. When his first love broke due to family pressure, the teen aged Aabid had no one to confide in – so he began putting his story on paper. The story was published in Gujarati in 1965 as Tootela Farishta (Fallen Angels) and proved to be an unexpected success.[6][7] As of now, he has written more than 80 books including 45 novels, 10 short story collections and 7 plays.[6][8][9] The biographical novel Musalman was the actual account of the author’s childhood in the poverty-ridden Dongri area of Mumbai.[6] His latest novel Sufi describes the parallel lives of two friends, one, the author himself and the other, a man called Iqbal Rupani who rose to become the kingpin of the Mumbai underworld in the 1960s and 70s.[10] In 1975, his fictional version based on the book the Devil's Bible titled The Black Book created a nationwide controversy. Even amidst critical acclaim, it was translated into 7 languages and voted ‘The Book of the Year’ in Kannada.[6][7] He earned the nickname the Salman Rushdie of India after his Black Book was published.[1] He has together with his son Aalif Surti and Chandrika Vyas, Rima Kashyap also penned a controversial and hard-hitting novel name In name of Rama inspired by a true incident during the demolition of the Babri Masjid.[11] In 2007, he was awarded the Hindi Sahitya Sanstha Award by the Uttar Pradesh government. He has also been given award by Gujarat Government for his literary work on children named Rangat. Name of his other novels are Canal and Daagh. He has also worked as Television and film script-writer. He has also been editor of Gujarati annual magazine name Dayaro for many years.[7] Recently, he has sued makers of Bollywood film Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge, which he says made from his Gujarati novel Bauter Varas No Babo published in year 1976, which was later translated in Hindi as Bahatar Saal Ka Baccha.[12][13] He has also written graphic children novels in Hindi like Buddh kyun muskuraye 2500 saal baad ( Why did the Buddha smile after 2500 years)[14] He has also written satirical gazal with common English words.[15]
Abid Surti has been acclaimed as a painter, who has been credited to have used creative and original techniques to paint with oil and water colors. His using of acrylic colors applied to Italian art paper are also said to be indeed out of this world.[16] An accomplished painter, he has held 16 exhibitions in India and abroad. In his early years, he invented an innovative technique called ‘mirror collage’ which won critical acclaim in Japan. In 1971, the Indian government commissioned a short film to showcase his creative work.[17][18][19]
The first cartoon characters, he created were in 1952-53 for a Gujarati magazine Ramakadu. It consisted of a comic feature of 4 pages in color with three prominent characters – a boy, a girl and a monkey, titled Rang Lakhudi.[14] As a cartoonist, he later created the lovable simpleton Dhabbuji. The highly original and popular cartoon strip has been one of the longest-running comic strips in India, running without a break for over 30 years. It was the weekly comic strip that first appeared in famous Hindi magazine Dharmyug.[14][17][20] He also created another popular comic book character, Bahadur,[1][14][17] which achieved a large fan following, when the comics started to be published in Indrajal Comics from 1978.[21] He also created other comic book characters like Inspector Azad,[22]Inspector Vikram and lady character named Shuja.[23][24][25] The cartoon Dhabbuji and comics of Bahadur, Inspector Azad, Inspector Vikram and Shuja were all also published in English. Raj Kapoor once wanted to make a film based on Inspector Azad, such was the popularity of his comic strips.[26] Further, his famous comic strips Doctor Chinchoo Ke Chamatkar, which used to get published in Hindi magazine Parag during the years 1963-65 is getting serialized by National Book Trust as Doctor Chinchoo Ke Kaarnamein.[27]
Abid Surti is the founder of Drop Dead, a unique initiative he set up in Mumbai in the year 2007 for water conservation. Every Sunday, along with a plumber and an assistant, he visits houses in and around Mira Road and fixes dripping taps. His plan is simple yet ingenious. He simply replaces old O-ring rubber gaskets with new ones. The idea struck him in 2007 when he noticed the dripping tap in his friend’s house. "A tap that drips water once every second wastes about 1,000 litre of water every month so imagine how much we all waste," he points out. Surti and his assistants raise awareness through posters and pamphlets.He pays for all expenses from his pocket.[2][28]
Abid Surti was born in a Muslim family on 5 May 1935 at Vavera near Rajula city of Gujarat, India to Gulam-hussain and Sakina Begum.[7] In his childhood at age of 5, he almost got carried away by flood in Tapti river near Surat.[7] The family later shifted to Bombay and he spent his childhood in Dongri area of Mumbai. His father was follower of Sufism[21] His mother tongue is, however, Gujarati, as his parents belonged to Surat city of Gujarat, India or to say he is Gujarati Muslim. That is why, he, probably uses Surati as his pseudo-name and surname. He joined J. J. School of Art in 1954 and obtained a Degree of Diploma in Arts. He was greatly influenced by writings of Shard Babu[7] Besides being a writer in Hindi & Gujarati, he is also an expert in Urdu.[7] He started his career as a free-lancer. In year 1965, he got married with Masooma Begum. They have two sons from this marriage elder named Sahil, who now works as a Management Guru and younger named Aalif, who works as creative head for STAR TV.[7] Today, also Abid Surti lives in Mumbai and prefers to maintain middle-class life-style.[21] He is a practitioner of Vipashyana. His hobbies include swimming, painting and acting in plays.[7] A director named Pramod Peti, has made a documentary on life of Abid Surti.[7][29]
Recently, one of Abid Surti's son Aalif Surti, was in news, when Aalif & his wife Aditi ( a Maharashtrian Hindu ), refused to fill in the column titled 'Religion' in their child's most basic document, the birth certificate. They said, "We are not against religion, but who are we to choose a religion on our baby's behalf? We will expose him to the values of different faiths and cultures, and when he grows up he will be free to follow any faith—or none if he wishes."[30] Aalif Surti is also a known person and started career at age of sixteen as a cartoonist. He dabbled in film journalism for a while before joining Shah Rukh Khan as a creative head for his website. He has been working with STAR TV since 2001 and has plans to move into full-time movie making soon.[31]