Umrao Tariq, a prominent Urdu short story writer and a novelist, passed away after a protracted illness on Thursday at the age of 79. The author of eight books, he published several collections of short stories, fiction and non-fiction. He is held in high regard for the accuracy and subtlety with which he depicted social life. His first collection of short stories, titled Badan ka Tawaf, was published in 1979 and received the Adamjee Literary Award. Umrao Tariq was born in 1932 to a landed family in Fatehpur near Kanpur but spent most of his childhood in Sahahpur in India. After the partition, Tariq’s family moved to Hyderabad-Deccan and later to Dhaka. In 1952, Tariq moved to Karachi, where, along with being a part of the police force, he wrote screenplays and stories for theatre. He retired from the police force in1992 after securing the post of deputy inspector general, Sindh. He also practiced law for a short time. He was later appointed as the Deputy Secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu (founded by Maulvi Abdul Haq) in Karachi. Tariq had started writing at an early age, but it was in1954 that his work was first published. His writings include Badan ka Tawaf (a collection of short stories), Khushkee peh jazeeray (a collection of short stories), Taman sheher nay pehnay hoay hain dastanay (a collection of short stories), Ma’toob (a novel), dhanak kay baqee manda rang (sketches and impressions of contemporary Urdu writers).
