Doha: Majlis-e-Frogh-e-Urdu Adab and other local Urdu literary figures have expressed profound grief over the death of reputed Indian Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi writer — Nand Kishore Vikram — who is the recipient of the 17th Aalmi Frogh-e-Urdu Adab Award in 2013.
Vikram was born on September 17, 1929 in Rawalpindi district. After 1947, his family migrated to India and settled in Ambala. He is survived by a son and two daughters.
He started writing poetry in school days but later concentrated on short stories and prose. He had written or edited about 100 books. In 1949, he joined daily ‘’Qaumi Akhbar’’ and ‘’ Amrit’’. He also published progressive magazine ‘’Irtiqa’’ and a Hindi magazine ‘’ Nai Kahani’’. Vikram’s first story ‘’ Nirala’’ was published in New Delhi. In 1961, his novel ‘’ Yaadon ke khandar ‘’ was published in Hindi and its Urdu version was published in 1981. His stories ‘’Aadha sach ‘’ -[ half truth ] and ‘’ Kaabli
Wale ki Wapsi’’ [The return of Kaabliwala] unleash biting sarcasm on the feigned righteousness in the name of nationalism. The protagonist is seemingly piqued at all pervading decline and he ruefully recognises that universal truths have ceased to exist. ‘’Vikram saheb’s death is a tremendous loss to Urdu language and literature and the sub-continent,’’ Majlis’ Chairman, Mohammad Atiq, said,: ‘’I had the privilege of visiting him at his home in New Delhi in February, 2014 during my last visit to India. He warmly welcomed me and gave me a lot of his books as gift. I will greatly miss him.’’
