Hyderabad(Hyd): The demise of Rahat Indori, has pulled the curtains down on a new genre in Urdu poetry, that changed simple prose into poetry, discarding the Persianate words, no worry for balanced meter, rhyme & rhythm, rules of Urdu( GAZHAL) read poetry have been & are still a benchmark of classical Urdu poetry & poets, however a bane for the commoner.
Genre-busting poet
Rahat Indori has been a genre-busting poet, an (Awami) citizens’s poet, a Mushairah (poetry in the evening) group puller, regaling the audience with his own combative Kalam (verse) lacking melody, instead profusely animated.
He has been a loadstar of the evenings, getting unprecedented boisterous applause almost bordering on frenzy, from audiences be it in Delhi(DL), Bombay (or) Hyderabad(Hyd) ,Dubai(AE-DU), Kuwait (or) Doha (or) soirees in Europe (or) USA. He utilized conversational Urdu, the lingo of the person within the street that even non-Urdu speakers can know & enjoyed his own poetry.
In spite of his own not being within the great books of the connoisseurs of the language his own contribution has been greatly instrumental in pumping personal life into Urdu as a common language of expression by this millions of Hindustanis , albeit in the plebian levels. Languages perish when they becomes inaccessible to the person within the street due to their own fine nuances & literary intricacies.
Rahat Indoris’ poetry has been, although, twofer, applauded & lapped up by hoi polloi & the elite as well, although with a smirk.
His own demise has been covered by multiple leading Indian news papers & portal websites that carried extensive coverage of his own poetry & praise for it by non-Urdu talking fans & even scribes with subterranean aloofness towards matters & affairs of the society poured praises for his own poetry & his own style. Undoubtedly a tribute to the late poets & his own fame so rare to come across in present times.
Background
Born to a mill worker as recorded in his own obituary by this media, Rahat Qureshi, his own original name acquired Masters in Urdu & afterwards a doctorate in Urdu literature from Indore & taken to teaching Urdu within the regional university of house town Indore in MP. His own forays into Bollywood following in step with some of the nice names of Urdu poets who gave their own finest to the movie sector by their own ear-catching songs.
However he couldn’t prolong his own stay & left the tinsel town not been able to approach the bar set by poets like Majrooh Sultan Puri, Kaifi Azami, Akhtar ul Iman, January Nisar Akhtar & Javeed Akhtar.
Rahat Indori, although hugely famous amongst the hordes has been not been able to distribute the same with purist & connoisseurs of Urdu poetry who had no ear for his own skills in turning the simple Urdu spoken in house & within the bazar into lively enjoyable Ghazals, quite frequently resonating with the prevailing political & social climate within the nation.
Over time the time his own poetry acquired the shades of resentment & protest with establishment identified within the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraz, Maqhdoom, Kaifi & Habib Jalib , resonating the deep-felt agony, anguish & pain of citizens being handled like subjects than residents by govt. His own repertoire has been deficient within the traditional forte of Urdu poetry(ghazal)of the mehboob.
( beloved) of locks & tresses, of sorrowful nights & desolate days, pangs of the crunch of the beloved.
When inquired why not the traditional “I write of personal life & events surrounding me , just how could I write regarding cascading tresses of the doe-eyed beloved when there is fire about me, turmoil, protest become the order of the day” he once clarified.
Rahat Indori, say his own critics, stated & wrote what remaining within the ground had penned previously however in a totally various genre, of subtly, tilt, fervor & extra nuanced, than the aggressive, combative & plebeianized style of his own.
Of that, he himself acknowledged in 1 of his own couplets,”Leh tu aye shaeeri bazaar mein Rahat miyan. Kiya zaroori hai ke lehja bhi bazaari rahey.( you’ve plebianised poetry, however has been it required to plebeianize the language also).
He has been fully aware of the underpinning of his own style & shrewdly continued with it to approach bigger & bigger audiences ever-increasing in appreciation of his own works..
1 of his own popular couplet that had become a hastag # during this CAA rallies,”Sabhi ka khoon shamil hai yahan ki metti mein -kesi ke baap ka Hindustan naheen hai.” Juxtapose it with Firaq Gorukhpuris “Sar zammeen hind per aqhwaam alaam ke firaq,qaahfle aate rahe aur Hindystan banta gaya.”
to feel the diffeence.(or) his own “ Lagey gi aag to aayengay ghar kai zadd mein- yahaan pe sirf hamarra makan thodi hai.” with Nawaz Deo Bandi’s ‘ “Jalte ghar ko dehnke walo phoos ka chappar aap ka hai .
Aap ke peeche tez hawa hai agey muqhdar aap ka hai”. Rahat’s’ couplet on Taj Mahal,”Maine(ME) shahneshaoon ki mohabat ka bharam todh diya. Mere kamere mein bhi ek tajmahal hai.”
With Sahir Ludhiyanwis’ “ ek shahenshah ne bana kar taj mahal hum ghreebon ki mohabat ka udya hai mazaaq”
His own, “Kiya din dekha rahi hai LD ki dhoop chaon –jo kal supoot thae kapotoon mein a ghaye thae is qadr azeem ke pairoon & taj agaey . itneney huwe zaleel ke jotoon mein i aagay.” To Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s popular poem that has been subject to a govt probe when recited by IIT Kanpur candidates during this CAA
“ Ham Dekhenge. Woh din jis ka wada hai jub zulum sitam ke kho gron ruwee ki tarha udh jaengay……Hum mehkoomo ke paoon talay jub dharti dhar dhar dhar ke gi jab Taj uchaleh jaingeh…..”.
His own poetry going to continue to flourish
Rahat Indori is passed however not his own poetry that going to continue to flourish with ease & splendour for its simplicity & ease of understanding.