Bashir Badr
Bashir Badr, born on the February 15th 1935 at Ayodhya, did B.A. M.A. and Ph D. from Aligarh Muslim University. He worked as a lecturer in the Aligarh Muslim University and later as the lecturer and head of the department of Meerut College, Meerut for 17 yrs. He knows Persian, Hindi and English as well.
It is believed that he started writing Shers at an early age of seven
He has brought out more than seven collections of poems in Urdu and one in Hindi. He has seven collections of Ghazals: ‘Ikai’, ‘Image’, ‘Aamad’, ‘Aahat’, ‘Kulliyate Bashir Badr’, etc. He also has 2 books of literary criticism, ‘Azadi Ke Bad Urdu Ghazals Ka Tanqidi Mutala’ and ‘Biswin Sadi Mein Ghazal’. He also brought out a collection of Urdu Ghazals in the Devnagari script, titled ‘Ujjale Apni Yadon ke’. The collections of his Ghazals have been published in Gujrati script also. His works have been translated into English and French.
He has been honoured with the Padmashree award. He also has been awarded by UP Urdu Academy four times and once by Bihar Urdu Academy. He has been bestowed with the Meer Academy Award, Poet of the year’80 New York, etc.
‘Aas’, the award winning collection of 69 Ghazals is the jewel in the poetic crown of Bashir Badr, one of his collections entitled ‘Kulliyate Bashir Badr’ has been published from Pakistan. The wide readership of his work has got him travelling to U.S.A, Dubai, Qatar, Pakistan, etc.
He is a pioneer, in melting the soft tenderness of Urdu communication into the English diction in many of his lyrics.It is believed that he started writing Shers at an early age of seven.
His Ghazals, like those of Meer Taqi Meer, contain highly contemporary Urdu, and are therefore easily understood and appreciated by a vast majority of people, without some extra effort. His Ghazals are primarily an expression of anguished love; in them are also expressed the mysteries of life. This, together with his many masterpieces, will forever remain as, his paramount contribution to the Urdu Poetry and Literature.
“Ye dard kitane ajeeb hai,
Sabhi mausamo main hare rahte hai.”
The journey of this legendary poet was not easy. A fire calamity burnt down all his possesions. He was left with nothing, and underwent a challenging time. But he started all over new. He moved to Bhopal. This incident, together with other earlier impediments ( including his hardship stages during his youth) lend a strong pathos to much of his writing.
He has taken those experiences as the building blocks of his life and that is what gains him the modesty.
