End of an era!

 "आँख में पानी रखो, होंटो ​​पे चिंगारी रखो।

जिंदा रहना है तो तरकीबे बहुत सारी राखो।"

The cult poet whose opening lines of one of his poetry symposiums, "Bulaati hai magar jaane ka nahi" flooded the social media with memes earlier this year, to another of his most famous lines, "Sabhi ka khoon shaamil hai yahan ki mitti mein, kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thodi hai" which became a widely accepted and used slogan in anti CAA protests, Dr. Rahat Indori knew the nerves of his audiences and always proved so with his compositions, be it his shayaris or songs, which could make the young and old rejoice alike whenever he was on the stage.

The Urdu scholar cum teacher cum lyricist cum poet cum painter, Indori sahab was undergoing treatment at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences. He had tested positive for COVID-19 and was being diagnosed for the same. Sadly, he passed away yesterday due to cardiac arrest, as confirmed by his son, Satlaj Indori.

About his life, he did his schooling from Nutan School in Indore and graduation from Islamia Karimia College Indore. He was brilliant in both studies and sports. He had captained the Hockey and Football teams in both school and college. During the phase between his graduation and post graduation though, he was mostly in a confused state doing nothing but wandering hither and thither. It was his friend who convinced him to pursue post graduation to which he obliged. He passed his MA exam in Urdu literature from Barkatullah University, Bhopal, in 1975. After that, he had an offer to teach in Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, the prerequisite for which was to have a PhD degree. Hence he pursued PhD and took to teaching the subject as well there. He was awarded a PhD in Urdu literature from the Bhoj University in 1985 for his thesis titled "Urdu Main Mushaira". While teaching Urdu literature, he also became busy with ''mushairas'' and started receiving invitations from all over India and abroad. His career in mushairas spanned for 50 years which will forever be remembered as a beautiful phase in the period for shaayaris and mushairas.

He was one of those fearless souls who was never afraid of calling a spade a spade. He was an inspiration to many for his intellect and craft.

Click here to go through all the poems Rahat sahab wrote in his lifetime which could make it to the public domain.