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Famous Urdu poet and critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, passed away on Friday at his Allahabad home, after a month recovering from Covid-19. He was 85. 

He was discharged from a hospital in Delhi on 23 November after recovering from the coronavirus. “But due to steroids, he developed a fungal infection, mycosis, which further worsened his condition,” Mahmood Farooqui told PTI. 

Born on September 30, 1935 in Uttar Pradesh, Faruqi began his career in Indian postal services and later made great contributions in the fields of Urdu and English literature. Faruqi is credited to have revived “Dastangoi”, a 16th-century Urdu oral storytelling art form. He was awarded Saraswati Samman in 1996 for his work She’r-e Shor-Angez, a four-volume study of the 18th-century poet Mir Taqi Mir and Padma Shree in 2009. 

His  books The Mirror of Beauty (rendered by him into English from the Urdu Kai Chaand The Sar-e-Aasmaan in 2006), Ghalib Afsaney Ki Himayat Mein (1989) and The Sun That Rose From The Earth (2014) ,are among the highlights of his five-decade-long literary career. 

"His demise has left us bereaved as an entire generation of literature lovers mourn this loss. I extend heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones,” Saraf said.

Faruqi’s last rites will be performed at the Ashok Nagar cemetery in Allahabad at 6pm on Friday.