SRINAGAR: Dr Tarannum Riyaz, a noted Urdu fiction writer and a popular poet passed away in New Delhi at around 9.30 AM today after she had tested positive for Covid19 and had spent the previous few days on a ventilator at the Medanta Hospital. She was and wife of former Vice-Chancellor of Kashmir University, Prof Riyaz Punjabi. She was 58.
Tragically, Taranum Riyaz died five-week after Punjabi’s death on April 8.
Dr Tarannum, a former newscaster with All India Radio and a noted Urdu fiction writer and critic, was born in Srinagar on August 9, 1963. She had completed her master’s degree in Urdu and PhD in Education from the University of Kashmir itself and was also awarded the SAARC Literature Award in 2014. He was born Fareeda Taranum.
Ms Taranum has written or edited more than 15 Urdu books that have been published/translated in a variety of languages, including English and Hindi. She had received many national and international prizes for her literary works. Earlier, she was a senior fellow with the Ministry of Culture Government of India. Her publications include eight Afsana collections, four poetry collections and two novels, Barf Asna Parinday and Mourti.
The literary world was shocked to hear about her demise. People paid their tributes to her by writing on multiple social media platforms. “Her singular achievement is that she did not lose her personal sociocultural identity even while living a successful married life with her matching brilliant partner,” senior journalist Mohammad Sayeed Malik wrote. “So much so that she virtually followed him in death as if right behind him. God bless their souls.”
“Losing both in a short span of 40 days is heart-wrenching,” Bashir Arif wrote.
