The Urdu Ghazal Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Syed Muhammad Bashir, known by his pen name Bashir Badr, was born on February 15, 1935, in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. He emerged as one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Urdu poetry, particularly renowned for his ghazals. Badr completed his education at Lucknow University and later taught Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University for several decades before retiring. His literary career spans over six decades, during which he established himself as a master of the ghazal form,...

Send us Fan Mail Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980), born Abdul Hayee in Ludhiana, was one of the most influential Urdu poets and lyricists of the 20th century. Born into an affluent family, Sahir's childhood was marked by his parents' troubled marriage and eventual separation. These early experiences of emotional turmoil profoundly influenced his poetry, infusing it with themes of pain, disillusionment, and social critique. He studied at Government College, Ludhiana, but left without completing his...

Send us Fan Mail Kaifi Azmi, born Syed Athar Husain Rizvi in 1919 in Mizwaan village near Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh), was one of the most influential Urdu poets of the 20th century. He showed literary promise from an early age, penning his first ghazal at the age of eleven. Deeply moved by social injustice, he became associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement (Taraqqi Pasand Tahreek) in the 1940s—a collective of writers who sought to use literature as a vehicle for social reform, equalit...

Send us Fan Mail Ali Sardar Jafri (1913-2000) was one of the most prominent Urdu poets of the 20th century, born in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh. Coming from an aristocratic family, he was educated at Sultan-ul-Madaris in Lucknow and later studied at Aligarh Muslim University. He became deeply involved in the Progressive Writers' Movement during the 1930s and remained committed to leftist ideals throughout his life, joining the Communist Party of India. Jafri's poetry combined romantic lyricism w...

Send us Fan Mail Majrooh Sultanpuri (1919-2000) was one of Urdu literature's most celebrated poets and a prominent lyricist in Hindi cinema. Born as Asrar ul Hassan Khan in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, he adopted the pen name ‘Majrooh’ (meaning ‘wounded’), which reflected the melancholic undertones often found in his work. He began his literary career as a progressive poet, deeply influenced by the Progressive Writers' Movement in Urdu literature. His early poetry dealt with themes of social jus...

Send us Fan Mail Parveen Shakir (1952-1994) was one of the most celebrated Urdu poets, known for her distinctive feminist voice and innovative approach to ghazal poetry. Born in Karachi, she earned a Master's degree in English Literature and later worked as a civil servant in the Pakistani government. Shakir published her first poetry collection, "Khushbu" (Fragrance), in 1976, which immediately established her as a significant literary voice. Her subsequent collections included "Sad-ba...

Send us Fan Mail Jan Nisar Akhtar (1914-1976) was a distinguished Urdu poet, lyricist, and writer who left an indelible mark on modern Urdu literature and Indian cinema. Born in Gwalior, he came from a literary family and developed his poetic sensibilities at an early age. Akhtar was known for his progressive ideals and was associated with the Progressive Writers' Movement. His poetry reflected a social consciousness, humanism, and a profound concern for the struggles of ordinary people. He w...

Send us Fan Mail Ahmad Faraz (1931-2008) gained prominence for his passionate ghazals and progressive poetry. His distinctive style blended classical Urdu poetry traditions with contemporary themes. What he wrote was characterized by romantic intensity, social consciousness, and political resistance. His verse focuses on love, loss, and human dignity, while also addressing issues of social justice and political oppression. Some of his most famous poetry collections include Tanha Tanha and Dar...

Send us Fan Mail Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911-1984) was one of the most celebrated and most loved Urdu poets of the last century. Faiz began his literary career in the 1930s and became associated with the Progressive Writers' Movement, which sought to use literature as a tool for social reform. His poetry masterfully combined classical Urdu literary traditions with revolutionary themes, addressing issues of social justice and political oppression. He served in the British Indian Army during World Wa...

Send us Fan Mail Raghupati Sahay, known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri (1896-1982), was one of the most celebrated Urdu poets of the 20th century. Born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, he bridged cultural and religious divides through his literary work. Firaq was not only a poet but also a distinguished academic and critic. He served as a professor of English literature at Allahabad University for many years and was deeply influenced by both Eastern and Western literary traditions. His academic...

Send us Fan Mail Asghar Hussain, known by his pen name Asghar Gondvi, was born in 1884 in Gorakhpur. Despite formally studying only up to the 8th class, Asghar achieved mastery of Urdu, Persian, and Arabic through self-study, and also gained proficiency in English. He was under the spiritual influence of Sayed Abdul Ghani Kazmi, a religious saint and mystic, and led a life of piety and self-control. Asghar worked in various occupations - he traded optical items, worked in the railway engineer...

Send us Fan Mail Jigar Moradabadi (1890-1960) was one of the most celebrated Urdu poets of the 20th century, renowned for his passionate ghazals and romantic poetry. Born as Ali Sikander in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, he adopted the pen name ‘Jigar’ (meaning heart or liver, symbolizing intense emotion), which perfectly captured the essence of his deeply emotional verse. During his lifetime, Jigar was considered one of the leading poets, alongside luminaries suc...

Send us Fan Mail Josh Malihabadi (1898-1982) was one of the most significant Urdu poets of the last century. Due to his revolutionary poetry during the freedom movement, he became known as Shaayir-e-Inquilaab. Josh was born Shabbir Hasan Khan on December 5, 1898, in Malihabad. He studied at St. Peter's College in Agra and later at Tagore's University, where he acquired proficiency in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and English. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru held him in high esteem and frequent...

Send us Fan Mail Hasrat Mohani (1875-1951), born Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan in Mohan, a town in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, was a multifaceted personality who impacted literature and politics in India. He was not only a romantic poet but also a journalist, politician, parliamentarian, and fearless freedom fighter. When he gave the call of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’—Long Live Revolution—he relentlessly fought for India’s independence from British rule. He was imprisoned several times for his rebelli...

Send us Fan Mail Yaas Yagana Changezi (1884–1956), born Mirza Wajid Hussain Changezi, was a bold and unconventional Urdu poet known for his rebellious spirit and modernist outlook. Born in Patna, Yagana carved a unique niche in Urdu literature by defying the traditional romanticism and conventional themes that dominated the poetry of his time. He was heavily influenced by Western philosophy, particularly the works of Nietzsche, and brought a tone of existentialism, skepticism, and self-awaren...

Send us Fan Mail Fani Badayuni, born Shaukat Ali Khan on September 13, 1879, in Badaun district, was a distinguished Urdu poet renowned for his poignant and melancholic poetry. He hailed from a family that had migrated to India from Kabul during the reign of Shah Alam. He graduated from Bareilly College in 1901 and earned his Bachelor of Laws from Aligarh Muslim University in 1906. Fani began composing poetry at a young age, completing his first Divan by age 20. He persevered despite initial ...

Send us Fan Mail Dagh Dehlvi (1831–1905) was one of the most celebrated poets of classical Urdu ghazal of the late 19th century. He came from an aristocratic family, but his father, Nawab Shamsuddin Ahmed Khan, was implicated in the murder of the British Resident William Fraser in 1835 and was executed by the British. This event drastically altered Dagh’s childhood. Following his father’s death, his mother, Wazir Khanum, married the Mughal crown prince Mirza Fakhru, bringing Dagh into t...

Send us Fan Mail Momin Khan Momin (1800-1851) was one of the most significant poets of the late Mughal period in Delhi. Born into a family of physicians, he was educated in Persian, Arabic, and traditional Islamic sciences. His real name was Muhammad Momin Khan, but he is known by his pen name ‘Momin.’ Momin was associated with the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, where he was highly respected for his poetic genius. Unlike many of his contemporaries who wrote primarily in...

Send us Fan Mail Maulana Altaf Husain Hali (1837-1914) was a significant Urdu poet and writer from the nineteenth century. He was born in Panipat and wrote in classical Persian and Urdu poetic traditions. However, after meeting Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, he became an essential voice for social reform and modernization in Muslim society. Hali's most famous work is the ‘Musaddas-e-Hali,’ a long poem that critically examined the decline of Muslim civilization and called for social and educational refo...

Send us Fan Mail Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, better known as Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869), was one of the most influential and celebrated Urdu poets. Born in Agra during the decline of the Mughal Empire, he moved to Delhi after his marriage at a young age, where he spent most of his life. Despite facing personal tragedies, including the deaths of all seven of his children in infancy and persistent financial difficulties, Ghalib produced some of the most sophisticated and philosophically complex po...

Send us Fan Mail Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) was born in Agra into a family that enjoyed great respect because of his father’s spiritual leanings. His father inspired Mir to follow the path of universal love and compassion. A tragedy struck when Mir was still young. He fell in love with an extended family member he could not marry. Heartbroken, he left Agra for Delhi, but that city was already in turmoil due to foreign invasions. Lovestruck and without any support, Mir lost the balance of his mi...

Send us Fan Mail Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-1785) was born to a highly respected religious family in Delhi. His father had relinquished his position in the Court to lead the life of a Sufi. Dard, therefore, received his spiritual education from his father. Although many poets left Delhi during the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali, Dard stayed in Delhi and witnessed horrible atrocities. He attained mastery over the Arabic, Persian, and Urdu languages. His close reading of the Quran sho...

Send us Fan Mail Mirza Mohammad Rafi Sauda (1713-1781) belonged to a family of traders who had migrated to India from Afghanistan. Because of his father's influence in the social circles, Sauda had easy access to nobility and social prestige that others longed for. But this situation didn’t last long. When Delhi came under attack, the family had to find a new place to live. Nawab Asifuddaulah patronized Sauda and was rewarded with an annual stipend of six thousand rupees. Sauda wrote in Persi...

Send us Fan Mail Zehra Nigah, lovingly called Zehra Aapa, was ten years old when her family moved from Hyderabad, her place of birth, to Karachi after the Partition. Her father was a civil servant who had a deep interest in literature. He passed on his love of books to his children, who excelled in various literary and artistic fields. Zehra Nigah started writing early and gained great popularity among Mushaira audiences. She settled in London after she married Majid Ali. Her house in London ...

Send us Fan Mail Rahat Indori was born in Indore in 1950 in a family that was going through a rough financial time, and as a result, he had to face the brutal realities of life, starting in his childhood. Despite these challenges, he struggled to get a good education, including a doctoral degree. His poetry had an element of directness that summed up the social and political difficulties facing ordinary people. In addition, he developed a style of recitation that impressed Mushaira audiences....

Send us Fan Mail Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi 'Saher" was born in 1909 in Sahiwal. After the partition, his family moved to Fazilka. His poetry was stylistically similar to the works of Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The Haryana Urdu Akademi instituted an award in his honor that has been presented yearly since 1990. Bedi was also associated with the film industry, producing three films and acting in one. His published works include ‘Tulu-e-Sahar’ ( a poetry collection) and ‘Yaadon Ka Jashn’ ...

Send us Fan Mail Saghar Siddiqui was born in 1928 in Ambala. He started writing poetry at a young age. In 1947, when he was 19, he migrated to Pakistan during the partition and settled in Lahore. In his later life, he fell into depression, became addicted to drugs, and turned into a homeless beggar. He would often hold mushairas on the footpaths in candlelight. He continued to write ghazals, though most were lost and remained unpublished. In 1974, Siddiqui, who was 46 at that time, was found ...

Send us Fan Mail Obaidullah Aleem was born in Bhopal in 1939. His family moved to Pakistan at the time of partition. He received higher education at the University of Karachi while pursuing several creative interests. He made an impressive debut as a radio and TV artist. Still, due to the discrimination he faced as an Ahmedia, everything came to a halt in 1978 when he was made to resign because of his religious beliefs. He moved to England in 1991 but soon returned to Pakistan. He passed away...

Send us Fan Mail Khaleel-ur Rehman Azmi, a leading Urdu poet and literary critic, was born in 1927. He received his higher education at the Aligarh Muslim University, where he taught Urdu. He was posthumously elevated to the rank of a Professor. He wrote extensively on the progressive writers’ movement and is considered a pioneer of Modernism in Urdu. He mentored the leading British Urdu scholar Ralph Russell and poet Shahryar. He authored nearly a dozen collections of poetry and literary cri...

Send us Fan Mail Hastimal Hasti (1946-2024) came from a humble background in Rajasthan but gained fame while working for the film industry in Mumbai. His poetry found a common ground between Urdu and Hindi, and as such, he endeared himself to a diverse audience. His ghazal, ‘Pyaar ka pehla khat likhne mein vaqt to lagta hai,’ was sung by Jagjit Singh, and it became an instant hit. He is also the author of a famous couplet: Har gaaon mein mumtaaz janam kyon nahin leti Har mod pe ik taj mahal k...

Send us Fan Mail Shahid Kabir was born in May 1932 in Nagpur. He started writing short stories and ghazals early and earned fame and name recognition after he began writing for films. In 1957, he authored a play about the life of Mirza Ghalib that was staged at Rastrapati Bhawan. His books include Kachchi Deewaarein (Novel, 1958) and ghazal collections such as Charon-or (1968) and Mitti Ka Makan (1979). He was honored by the Maharashtra State Urdu Academy. He passed away in May 2001. Jagjit a...

Send us Fan Mail Andleeb Shadani was born in Moradabad district, UP, in 1904. He studied Persian at the Punjab University and earned a doctoral degree in England in 1934. He taught at the Hindu College in Delhi before moving to Dacca University. His poetry collection is called Nishaat-e-Rafta. He died in July 1969 in Dacca in what was still East Pakistan. Many singers, including Jagjit Singh, have sung his ghazals. His most famous ghazal is der lagi aane mein tum ko, shukr hai phir bhi aaye to.

Send us Fan Mail On August 18, 2024, we celebrate the 90th Birthday of Gulzar Sahib. Some people say age is nothing more than a number, yet we can’t deny that it is an important milestone. Gulzar’s creative spark is as bright as it has been over the years. He leads a busy life, reading, staying in touch with his friends, and writing new stuff, maybe poetry or something difficult to put in a box. As a long-time admirer of Gulzar’s work, I wish him, along with millions of his fans, many more ye...

Send us Fan Mail Sudarshan Faakir, an exceptional nazm and ghazal poet, was born in 1934 in Jalandhar. He studied at the DAV College and earned a master's degree in Political Science. His first job was at the local radio station, but other opportunities attracted him, and he got into directing stage plays and movies. Although he started writing at a young age, his talent surfaced once he became a lyricist for Bollywood movies and even won the coveted Filmfare award. The lyricism of his compos...

Send us Fan Mail Naresh Kumar Shaad was born in a village near Hoshiarpur in 1927. He earned great admiration as a poet, prose writer, translator, and editor of several literary journals. Drinking became his weakness and caused him much grief. His father, Dard Nikodari, was also a poet and one of the distinguished disciples of master poet Josh Malsiyani. Therefore, it was natural that Shaad acquired the skill of composing a ghazal at an early age. He was often in and out of government jobs as...

Send us Fan Mail Abbas Tabish, a famous Mushaira poet, was born in 1961. His ghazal poetry is known for amalgamating contemporary sociopolitical themes with the intoxicating flavor of the classical ghazal of the late 19th century. He teaches at the Government College University in Lahore. One of his famous couplets goes like this: chaand chehre mujhe achhe to bahut lagte hain i’shq main us se karunga jise Urdu aaye I like moon-like beauties but I will fall in love with someone&n...

Send us Fan Mail Amjad Islam Amjad was a multi-talented poet, lyricist, and TV serial creator who significantly contributed to Urdu literature. He was born in Lahore in 1944. He held several high positions in institutions connected with arts, entertainment, and education and received several honors from the government and other national and international organizations. He thoroughly mastered the art of ghazal writing, highly appealing nazms in free verse, and plays for TV and the stage. He pu...

Send us Fan Mail Kaif Bhopali was born in 1917 in Bhopal to a family of Kashmiri origin. He gained great fame as a literary poet and film lyricist. Who has not heard and appreciated Mohd Rafi’s classic hit song, ‘Chalo Dildaar Chalo,’ from Kamal Amrohi’s 1972 film ‘Pakeezah?’ Kaif Bhopali wrote that song. Jagjit Singh also popularized several ghazals by Kaif in his melodious voice. The following couplet, one of the most remarkable in Urdu ghazal poetry, was penned by Kaif as well. zindagi sha...

Send us Fan Mail Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, a leading figure in modern Urdu literature, was born in 1916 near Sargodha. After earning his master's degree, he worked in the Reform Commissioner’s office in Lahore in 1936. During the 1940s, his friendship with Manto inspired him to write scripts for films, but none of those films came to fruition. Following the Partition, he worked briefly as a scriptwriter for Radio Pakistan in Peshawar. Soon after, he joined the editorial board of the rep...

Send us Fan Mail Khumar Barabankvi (1919 – 1999) was named Mohammed Haidar Khan by his parents. His uncle ‘Qaraar Barabankvi’ was a well-known poet of Barabanki who guided Khumar at a young age. His brother Qazim Haider ‘Nigar’, who died at an early age, was also a poet. It was, therefore, natural for the young lad in the family to follow in the footsteps of his elders. He selected ‘Khumar’ as his pen name and started writing ghazal poetry. He became friends with Jigar Moradabadi, one of the ...

Send us Fan Mail Sahir Hoshiarpuri (1913-1994) is less well-known than Sahir Ludhianvi, but they share some commonalities. They were born in places (Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur) that are geographically close. Their ghazal poetry is heart-touching and drowns the reader in the emotional fervor of evocative words. Sahir Hoshiarpuri, originally named Ram Parkash Sharma, studied Persian at the prestigious Government College in Lahore. His friendship with Mehr Lal Soni Zia Fatehabadi, a student at the ...

Send us Fan Mail Qateel Shifai, originally named Mohammad Aurangzeb, was born in Haripur in Hazara District in 1919. His father's sudden demise disrupted his higher education. He tried his luck in business but failed. He moved to Lahore in 1946, which was the start of his literary life. He earned great fame as a film lyricist and a literary poet. He published nearly 20 books of ghazals and poems and wrote over 2000 film lyrics. He won many awards, including the Government of Pakistan’s Pride ...

Send us Fan Mail Shakeel Badayuni was born in Badaun in 1916 and received higher education at the Aligarh Muslim University. He became interested in poetry and wanted to be a romantic poet, which was unusual because, at that time, the progressive writer’s movement was at its peak. But Shakeel decided to be an interpreter of his heart. After working in Delhi for a few years, he moved to Bombay in 1944. His association with music director Naushad gave us unforgettable lyrics from films like Bai...

Send us Fan Mail Gulzar was born in Dina (District Jhelum, now in Pakistan) in 1934. After partition, the family split and moved to Delhi and Mumbai. Partition and the horrors of partition significantly influenced young Gulzar, and later in his life, he published short stories and a novel about this apocalyptic event. As a student, he was impressed by the poetry of Tagore and Ghalib. After a short stay in Delhi, he moved to Mumbai and worked in a motor garage owned by the family, working on p...

Send us Fan Mail Javed Akhtar was born in Gwalior. There is hardly any other Urdu poet connected to such eminent and epoch-making personalities on either side of his birth—maternal and paternal—where the legacy of poetry and knowledge is continuous and uninterrupted. Who wouldn’t know Allama Fazle Haq Khairabadi? He was a talented man and a great scholar of his time. Ghalib appreciated him and was fond of him. He said he assisted in the selection of ghazals for Ghalib’s Divan. Fazle Haq signe...

Send us Fan Mail Poet Shahryar was born in 1936 in a small town near Bareilly, and early in his life, he came under the influence of Khaleelur Rehman Azmi, a prominent Urdu critic and poet. He joined the Aligarh Muslim University, where he earned his doctoral degree. Shahryar started his career at the Anjuman Taraqqqi-e Urdu, where Professor Ale Ahmad Suroor was the President. Later, he moved to the Department of Urdu at AMU and taught there until his retirement in 1996. He was awarded ...

Send us Fan Mail Jayant Parmar, born in Ahmedabad in 1954, overcame socio-economic barriers to get a good education and succeed as a poet. He also gained fame as an accomplished painter. His work has won recognition both at the national and state levels. He won the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award in 2008 and three state Sahitya Akademi awards between 2001 and 2008. Six collections of his poems and ghazals have been published. His poetry is known for its natural sensibility and the creative use ...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Bashir Badr was born in Ayodhya in 1935. He received his college education at Aligarh Muslim University, where he earned his graduate and doctoral degrees. He spent most of his life as a college professor, first in Aligarh and then in Meerut. He now lives in Bhopal. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1999, and the same year, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for one of his poetry collections. Widely published, Bashir Badr is a poet of ghazal, rich in romantic allusions and ...

Send us Fan Mail Nida Fazli (1938-2016) was born in Delhi into a family of Kashmiri descent, but he grew up in Gwalior. During the partition, his parents migrated to Pakistan, but he decided to stay in India. Early in his life, he was influenced by the poetry of saints and bhaktas like Kabir, Surdas, and Mirabai, and this was his inspiration for writing poetry in Hindi, Gujarati, and Urdu. Later in life, he studied Urdu poetry, especially the works of Mir and Ghalib. He moved to Mumbai in 196...

Send us Fan Mail Parveen Shakir (1952-1994) attained fame early when her first poetry collection was published in 1976. The literary career that followed consisted of several acclaimed poetry collections and honors. She was highly educated, earning her degrees from Karachi and Harvard Universities. She was selected for the Pakistan Civil Service, and her untimely death in a car accident shocked everyone. With her death, the Urdu language lost one of its most promising young writers who had mu...

Send us Fan Mail Jaun Elia (1931-2002) was born in Amroha, a town in Uttar Pradesh. He migrated to Pakistan in 1957 with some reluctance, but the agony of migration that forced separation from his roots never left him. Coming from a highly literate family, Jaun gained a good grounding in Eastern and Western philosophy and Islamic and Sufi belief systems at an early age. Although he was born into a Muslim family and had studied at the Deoband School of Islamic Jurisprudence, he kept religion o...

Send us Fan Mail Nasir Kazmi (1925-1972) was born in the Indian town of Ambala in Punjab and moved to Lahore after partition. He was associated with Radio Pakistan for several years. His poetry is known for its mellow and soft lyricism and is rich in novel similes and metaphors. It is rooted in the prakritic tradition of Mir Taqi Mir and reflects sad tones reflecting the uprootedness and tragedy of partition. He wrote perceptively on Mir and also published a selection of his verse. At the sam...

Send us Fan Mail Ahmad Faraz (1931-2008) was a close friend of both Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ali Sardar Jafri, and he followed in their footsteps to be an icon of modern progressive poetry. Because he opposed the military rule of Zia-ul Haq, he was arrested, lost his job, and on his release, he went into a self-imposed exile, spending many years in foreign lands. He started as a romantic poet, and when Mehdi Hasan sang one of his ghazals, ranjish hi sahi, his popularity touched new heights. Follow...

Send us Fan Mail Majrooh Sultanpuri (1919-2000) was called Mir Taqi Mir of Urdu poetry, as someone who had fully internalized the legacy of ghazal writing. The humanistic aspects of Marxism are very much present in his poetry. He was a poet of the people, which is what he wanted to be. He had one slim volume of poetry that he expanded every few years. Since some of the keywords were common among the progressives, some readers felt that some of Majrooh’s couplets sounded like Faiz wrote them. ...

Send us Fan Mail Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002) was born in a conservative Muslim family near Azamgarh in UP, but he adopted socialism as his creed. He was an active participant in the Communist Party of India. He published his first collection of poems called Jhankaar in 1943. Sajjad Zahir welcomed Kaifi as a valuable addition to the front-ranking poets in the assembly of Urdu poetry. His entry into Hindi films and his energetic presentations in mushairas brought him great fame. Kaifi stood firmly f...

Send us Fan Mail Jan Nisar Akhtar (1914 – 1976), father of poet Javed Akhtar, was a part of the Progressive Writers Movement and a famous lyricist for several Bollywood movies. He was the son of poet Muztar Khairabadi and great-grandson of freedom fighter Fazle-Haq Khairabadi. From his early days, he was sympathetic to progressive thinking. Although he wrote both ghazals and poems, we find the soul of his poetry in his ghazals. His poetry collection Khaake Dil (Ashes of the Heart) got h...

Send us Fan Mail Jigar Moradabadi (1890-1960) was born in Benaras. Because he lost his father at an early age, he struggled to get a start in life and gain proficiency in Urdu and Persian. Due to his friendship with Asghar Gondvi, he settled in Gonda, a town near Lucknow. Jigar kept alive the classical, rhythmic traditional style of ghazal writing, and his name often occurs near the top of twentieth-century Urdu poets. His ghazals have a rare psychological touch and a sweeping lyrical flow. W...

Send us Fan Mail Asrarul Haq Majaz (1911-1955) of Lucknow lived a relatively short life of 44 years, but within this short time, he made a significant impact with his alluring poems and captivating ghazals. Although he was not an excellent academic student, he influenced many people during his stay at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). He wrote his best work while at Aligarh. He composed the Tarana, anthem for AMU that is passionately sung today. His first poetry collection Aahang was heralded ...

Send us Fan Mail Among the modern progressives and those who were also associated with the film industry, Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) occupies a very special place. It has to do with his celebrity status as much as his romantic poetry that appealed to a new generation of young people in post-independent India. Sahir was also a powerful voice against social injustice, exploitation, denial of women’s rights, and income inequalities. His collection of poetry Talkhiyaan was published in 1944, and...

Send us Fan Mail Hasrat Mohani (1875-1951) revived the Urdu ghazal after the onslaught of the Nayi Shaa’yari (New Poetry). He infused it with socio-political zeal while retaining its lyricism and charm. He learned from past masters like Mir and Ghalib about how feminine beauty is captured in verse. There is a visible influence of Mus-hafi, but his more important contribution lies in the fact that he domesticated beauty – he talked about meetings under the shadow of stars, coming up to the upp...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I present the ghazal poetry of Josh Malihabadi. He got his education at St. Peter’s College in Agra and a brief stint at Tagore’s University at Shanti Niketan. He founded the progressive magazine Kaleemin Delhi, and after the independence, he was appointed editor of Aajkal, a government of India literary publication, where he worked for eight years. His decision to migrate to Pakistan in 1956 shocked many people, including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Prime Mi...

Send us Fan Mail Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) is a milestone in the ghazal tradition as the climax of liberal Urdu poetry. He was a significant departure from Iqbal and the elasticity of the ghazal structure that allowed a new creative poetic transformation. His verse's captivating musicality is unsurpassed in contemporary Urdu poetry. Faiz’s poetry, soaked in the kernel of tagazzul, the lyrical love sensibility of the ghazal, played the most significant role in enriching the Urdu ghazal’s poe...

Send us Fan Mail The Urdu Ghazal Podcast presents the ghazal poetry of a leading poet in each episode. In this first episode, we present the magnificent poetry of Firaq Gorakhpuri who brought the taste of Sanskrit and Hindi poetic rasa into his compositions. He not only excelled in ghazal, but the rubai collections authored by him are also memorable for the exposition of feminine beauty in all its forms-- a young girl, a married woman, and an iconic universal mother. Relax and e...

Send us Fan Mail Intizar Husain was born in a small town in the district of Bulandshahr, UP, and his family migrated to Pakistan in 1947. But it seems that he left his heart behind because not only pre-partition India but the dominant themes in the Indian culture, including folk tales and ancient epics, stayed in his consciousness. He repeatedly used these themes in his stories and novels. His 1979 novel Basti, translated into English by Francis Pritchett, was nominated for the Man Booker Int...

Send us Fan Mail In this Season finale, I present a short story by Intizar Husain, the eminent short story writer, and novelist of the Indian subcontinent. He was born in a small town in the district of Bulandshahr, UP, and his family migrated to Pakistan in 1947. But it seems that he left his heart behind because not only pre-partition India but the dominant themes in the Indian culture, including folk tales and ancient epics, stayed in his consciousness. He repeatedly used these themes in h...

Send us Fan Mail This is a short story by Fahmida Riaz, a poet, distinguished author, and tireless fighter for women’s rights. She was born in Meerut in 1946, and after the partition, her family settled in Hyderabad, Sindh. During the dictatorial regime of Zia Ul Haq, she was charged with several crimes, and she sought refuge in India and spent seven years in exile. On Women’s Rights, she once said, and I quote, “Feminism has so many interpretations. What it means for me is simply that women,...

Send us Fan Mail Saadat Hasan Manto’s name should be familiar to listeners of this Podcast because his short story Toba Tek Singh was the first story to be featured in this Podcast. Manto gained great fame as a playwright and a short story writer in pre-partition India, but his greatest achievement was how he captured the brutality unleashed by India’s partition and how women suffered the most in this carnage. Khol Do or Open! is truly a very short story consisting of 3 ½ print pages but...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I present a short story written by Yashpal, an eminent Hindi writer whose work has been compared with that of Munshi Prem Chand. Yashpal was born in Kangra Hills in 1903. He was an early follower of Gandhi Ji's non-violent approach, but after meeting Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev at the National College in Lahore, he became a full-fledged revolutionary, turning himself to be a fugitive in 1929 when he tried to blow up a train carrying Viceroy Lord Irwin. On releas...

Send us Fan Mail It is a romantic story written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, who is remembered as a novelist, story writer, film director, and distinguished journalist. Although I did not fully subscribe to the communist worldview, when I picked up a copy of BLITZ weekly magazine as a student, I immediately jumped to what was called the Last Page. This place was reserved for a column by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. He was born in Panipat, a town in Haryana that we often associate with Maulana Hali. Abbas’s ...

Send us Fan Mail Bhisham Sahni, the younger brother of famous Bollywood actor Balraj Sahni, was born in Rawalpindi in 1915. Throughout his life, Bhisham Sahni’s name was associated with progressive causes and movements. He is most remembered for his epic novel Tamas in which he soulfully narrated the 1947 riots he witnessed in the city of his birth. Sahni also wrote plays, and two of his creations, Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein and Madhvi, earned critical acclaim. About his literary contributions,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to IndiStories Episode 22. Qurratulain Hyder, Aini Aapa to her friends, was an outstanding literary personality who wrote both in Urdu and English. Her novel Aag Ka Dariya (the River of Fire), her magnum opus, bears a comparison to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. In this episode, I present her Urdu short story Nazzara Darmiyaan Hai, which is one of the best Urdu short stories ever written. Aini Aapa won several literary awards, including Jnanpi...

Send us Fan Mail When we look at the landscape of modern Hindi fiction, there are a few names like Munshi Prem Chand that take the top spot, but there are a few others who made lasting contributions to the art of storytelling. One such name that comes to my mind is Agyeya. He was born in Kasia, a small town in Uttar Pradesh, in 1911 in a Punjabi Brahmin family and he adopted an unusual pen name, Agyeya, meaning the unknowable. Agyeya wrote poetry, published novels and short stories, plays, tr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I present FALLS, a short story by Geeetha Nair G. It is about a romance that happened many years ago. Still, a chance encounter brought back memories of what looked real at one time, but underneath, it was a show rather than a commitment. We calculate how our future will play out, but the arc of life is unpredictable. All our plans and schemes can unravel as time marches forward. The story is drawn from the Punch Magazine Anthology of New Writing by the Woman...

Send us Fan Mail If you love good Urdu prose, we have a real gift for you. A. Hameed was a Pakistani novelist and story writer who wrote fiction with a poetic flair. Using metaphors, mainly drawn from the beauty of nature, he weaved a net of words that enveloped the reader in its fold. He was born in Amritsar in 1928 and wrote about 200 novels and nearly 100 books for children. He was awarded the Pride of Performance Award by the government in 1997. He passed away in 2011. The story ‘Aur Pull...

Send us Fan Mail The story “Kashmir Valley’s Soofiya Bano” was written by Humra Quraishi. Set against the backdrop of the devastating floods in the valley in 2014, we learn from the story about the painful search of a mother for her missing son. The son was arrested and then he fell into the black hole of the security apparatus. The story starts with the description of the flooded Srinagar home of academic Agha Ashraf Ali, father of Agha Shahid Ali, the well-known poet, and his wife fro...

Send us Fan Mail The story titled "Pinjara" was written by Upendranath Ashk, a famous novelist, story writer, and playwright. He was born in Jalandhar, in 1910. He worked for All India Radio for many years and invented what came to be known as naturalistic Hindi theater. Upenderanath Ashk had complete mastery over Hindi and Urdu and his books were published in both these languages. In 1940 he moved to Allahabad where he spent the rest of his life. He passed away in 1996.

Send us Fan Mail "Puure Chaand Ki Raat" is a story written by Krishan Chander, the eminent Urdu fiction writer, who weaved poetry into his prose writing. This love story is set in Kashmir and even if you have never visited this place you can smell the purified and fragrant air of the Valley in Krishan Chander’s writing. Love can take many forms, but if you have loved someone deeply your love for that person will never die. Krishan Chander’s description of nature is realistic as well as myster...

Send us Fan Mail We start the second season with a fascinating story titled "Static A.D." written by Ameta Bal. The story is drawn from the "Anthology of New Writing by Women Writers" produced by the Punch literary magazine and edited by Shireen Quadri. This anthology is a beautiful collection. Get a copy of this book, and you can spend hours reading these fascinating tales. "Static A.D." selected for this program is about what looks like the end of the world, or the world as we k...

Send us Fan Mail The Chessplayers as a piece of historical fiction is a class by itself. At the surface level, it is the story of two petty Nawabs who were obsessed with the game of chess, but at the deeper level, it is the story of the fall of Oudh, and even the fall of independent India. Once the British took hold of Oudh, very little could come in their way to grasp the remnants of the Mughal Empire in Delhi and the rest of India. For the city of Lucknow itself, it was the best of times an...

Send us Fan Mail Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is a writer who needs no introduction to the listeners. He not only rejuvenated Bengali literature, but there is not an Indian genre or subgenre of fiction, poetry, playwriting, philosophy, art, and education that he did not profoundly influence. He was born in Calcutta in 1861 in a distinguished family at the forefront of the Indian renaissance. While on a trip to England, he showed his translation of Gitanjali to poets William Butler Yeats and Ez...

Send us Fan Mail IndiStories presents a piece written by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and the most loved Indian political leader. Because of his education at Harrow School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the one who was trained in law at the Inner Temple, he acquired deep thinking skills that he used to probe India’s history and culture. Who doesn’t remember his Tryst With Destiny speech that he delivered as the clock struck midnight to usher India into an era of fr...

Send us Fan Mail 'The Death of Mahatma Gandhi’ is a story like no other because it is based on the eyewitness account of someone who saw it all. Nayantara Sahgal, the distinguished novelist, is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Her mother Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister, was the 8th president of the UN General Assembly, besides being a governor and a member of parliament. Nayantara is Pandit Nehru’s niece and Indira Gandhi’s cousin. She has published about a dozen no...

Send us Fan Mail Famous Urdu novelist and short story writer Qurratulain Hyder once described Professor Gopi Chand Narang, who passed away on June 15, 2022, as a "renaissance man" of Urdu. Narang called his life a safr-e i'shq (the journey of love) for Urdu language and literature. The story of Ghazal included in this episode has been excerpted from the book The Urdu Ghazal: A Gift of India’s Composite Culture. We all love ghazals and that is why we read them and listen to them in the immorta...

Send us Fan Mail Satyajit Ray was a multidimensional genius who showed his talent in many fields and genres besides films. He was an author, lyricist, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. Ray was born in Calcutta in 1921. He was only three when his father passed away, and he was raised by his mother, Suprabha Ray. He was educated at the Presidency College, Calcutta, and Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. His first job was at a book publishing company where he designed book co...

Send us Fan Mail Ismat Chughtai was born in Badaun in 1915 in a large family of six brothers and four sisters. Her elder brother, Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai, a novelist, became her mentor and encouraged her to become a writer. Because she wrote openly about female sexuality, she got into legal trouble with the publication of her s short story Lihaaf, which featured a begum having a lesbian relationship with her maid. She was charged with promoting obscenity, and the case went up to Lahore ...

Send us Fan Mail This week I present the work of an outstanding Punjabi poet and fiction writer Amrita Pritam. She was born in 1919 in a village in Gujranwala district, now in Pakistan. She moved to Lahore to work for the All-India Radio and married a businessman named Pritam Singh. This is how she acquired her last name. The country’s partition was a traumatic event for millions of people who were uprooted. Amrita Pritam felt the pain of everyone and penned her most famous work, a poem title...

Send us Fan Mail This week I bring you the work of an outstanding Indian novelist and short story-writer Qurratulain Hyder or simply “Ainee Aapa” to many of her fans. To her literary admirers, she was the Grande Dame of Urdu literature. She was born in Aligarh in 1927 where her parents were established literary figures. Educated in Delhi and Lucknow, she moved to Pakistan in 1947 where she published her Magnum Opus Aag Ka Dariya or The River of Fire. This work is often compared with Gabriel G...

Send us Fan Mail This week I bring you the work of another leading storyteller from the Progressive Writers Movement: Krishan Chander, a familiar name to Urdu and Hindi readers. He was born in 1914 in Bharatpur in Rajasthan, where his father practiced medicine. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the F.C. College in Lahore, a reputable institution of higher learning before the partition. Krishan Chander was a prolific writer – he wrote 50 novels and 34 collections of short stories, and...

Send us Fan Mail Rajinder Singh Bedi, a leading short story writer in the Urdu's progressive writers' movement was born in 1915. He started to write at an early age and achieved fame as an author of path-breaking stories like Woolen Coat and Give Me Your Sorrows. After the partition, he spent the rest of his life in the film industry in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was called then. Starting with a low-budget movie called Bari Behan in 1949, Bedi succeeded as a script or a dialogue writer or a dire...

Send us Fan Mail This episode brings a story written by Mulk Raj Anand, a path-breaking writer. Born in Punjab in 1905, he broke many barriers, earning a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University in 1929. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, which included many bright minds of the 20th century like E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, and Virginia Woolf. He was also a close friend of T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, George Orwell, and Picasso, and a founder member of the Progressive Wr...

Send us Fan Mail Munshi Premchand was a trailblazer storyteller who is remembered for his path-breaking contributions to both Urdu and Hindi languages. He was born in 1880 and was named Dhanpat Rai Srivastava. He started his writing career as an Urdu writer but later moved to Hindi at the advice of a friend. He is truly the father of Urdu afsana and Hindi kahani. In his creative journey, we find evidence of progress from a softer to a more mature persona, a sign of how he moved from describin...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to IndiStories, a new Podcast about creative short fiction. My name is Surinder Deol. In this Podcast, I’m going to present the work of highly gifted South Asian fiction writers. In this first episode, I present a classic of Indian literature titled “Toba Tek Singh” written by Saadat Hasan Manto. It is a story about India's partition. It captures the human tragedy involving the exchange of lunatics between India and Pakistan, and its ending shatters our hearts. Saadat...