Celebrated Urdu Poet Bashir Badr Dies at 91
MUMBAI — Celebrated Urdu poet and Padma Shri awardee Bashir Badr has died at the age of 91 after a prolonged illness, according to reports.
Veteran lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar paid tribute to Badr on X, writing in Urdu that the language had lost one of its great voices.
“Today, our language Urdu has become a little poorer. Bashir Badr, an extremely melodious poet, has departed from our gathering forever. This poet and his poetry will live on in our memories forever,” Akhtar wrote.
Badr was widely known for his poetry on love, relationships and human emotions. Among his most famous lines was the couplet, “Dushmani jam kar karo lekin ye gunjaish rahe, jab kabhi hum dost ho jayein to sharminda na hon,” which he wrote during the 1972 Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan.
He was also remembered for several other widely quoted verses, including “Kuch to majbooriyaan rahi hongi, yun hi koi bewafa nahi hota,” “Ujale apni yaadon ke hamare saath rehne do, na jaane kis gali me zindagi ki shaam ho jaye,” and “Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein, tum taras nahi khate bastiyan jalane mein.”
Badr was born Feb. 15, 1935, in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. He received his higher education at Aligarh Muslim University, where he also earned his Ph.D.
He later served as a professor of Urdu at Aligarh Muslim University and helped mentor young literary voices. He also became head of the Urdu Department at Meerut College, where he taught for nearly 17 years.
Badr suffered a major personal and professional loss during the 1987 communal riots, when his house was set on fire and many of his unpublished manuscripts and writings were destroyed.
After the incident, he moved to Bhopal, where he spent the rest of his life. (Source: IANS)
