In 1968 the Sahitya Akademi awarded her a prize for her collection of short stories Patjhar ki Aavaaz (The Sound of Falling Leaves) and her controversial voluminous novel Aag ka Dariya—which was especially mentioned by the Nobel Laureate J.M.G. Le Clézio as among his favorite works—has been translated into fifteen Indian languages, including an English translation, River of Fire, by the author. She was one of the editors of Imprint magazine, Mumbai; later she worked for many years as a member of the editorial staff of the Illustrated Weekly of India. She had travelled widely and in 1979–80 was a writer-in-residence for the International Writers Program of the University of Iowa. She received the Jnanpith Award in 1989, and was given the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to Urdu literature.