Altaf Baloch

Altaf Baloch (also spelled Eltap Baloch) was born on 4 April 1977 in Bit Buleda village, Kech District, Balochistan, Pakistan. He received his primary education at the public school in his village and took his intermediate exam at Degree College Turbat (now called Atta Shad Degree College) in 1993.

Altaf earned his first MA in Political Science from Balochistan University, Quetta, in 2009, and his second MA in Balochi from Balochistan University, Turbat campus, in 2017. He earned his MPhil in Balochi from Balochistan University, Turbat campus, in 2019.

Altaf is a schoolteacher in Turbat. He is the chief editor of the literary journal Trán (Discussion), which he founded in January 2020. He is active in the Balochi literary movement, and from time to time he arranges seminars and webinars for discussing issues such as language standardization, orthography, new literary developments, etc. He is also active in other societal issues, such as the struggle against drug addiction in Balochistan. (41)

Altaf began writing in Balochi from a very early age, in the 1980s. His first story Emróz (The World) was published in 1993 in the magazine Kéch, run by the Government Degree College, Turbat, where he was an undergraduate student at the time. However, most of his stories and other writings have been published after 2000. His short stories have so far appeared in several literary journals.

Altaf Baloch’s short story Bot (The Statues) was published in 2018 in a special short story issue of the Balochi journal Estin (Cumulus clouds). (42) In 2019 the publisher gave it the Estin Award, (43) which is given to outstanding Balochi short stories. Bot is an allegory about power and the usurpation of power. The story begins with a person living alone in a city as its ruler. This ruler decides to embellish his city with two statues, and that is when things begin to go wrong. The ruler remains unnamed and genderless throughout the story. This is possible because Balochi does not have male and female gender (he and she) in the pronoun system. Somehow, though, the character’s interests show that he is a man, and therefore the pronoun “he” has been chosen in the English translation.