Shahid Kabir – Urdu poet from Maharashtra whose ghazals were sung by Jagjit Singh and other legendary ghazal singers

Shahid Kabir (1932 – 2001) was an Urdu poet and novelist from Maharashtra. Pehchaan and Charon Aour are his ghazal collections. Shahid’s ghazals reached millions of hearts after most of his works were rendered by legendary ghazal artists including Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Pankaj Udhas and Hariharan, and also Pakistani ghazal singers like Munni Begum. Uski gali mein phir mujhe ek baar len chalo is one of his popular ghazals, popularized by many singers.

Shahid Kabir was a native of Nagpur. Initially he was not a poet or writer. He got into writing only after he joined central government service at Delhi in 1950 during his late teens. His meeting with Urdu poets in Delhi like Ali Sardar Jafri, Zuber Rizvi and Naresh Kumar Shad deeply influenced him and that’s how he started writing poems in the 1950s. He worked in the Food and Marketing Department of the central government at Delhi, followed by Nagpur. Through his writings, he established a link between old and new style of writing shayaris.

Shahid Kabir – Less-known and interesting facts

Shahid_Kabir with Jagjit Singh and his son

1. Though he is best known as an Urdu ghazal writer, his first published book was a novel, Kachchi Deewaren (1958).

2. Among his 7 children, his son Sameer Kabeer is a poet.

3. He has been recognized by Maharashtra State Urdu Academy for his contributions towards Urdu literature.

4. Apart from ghazals, he also authored geets, nazms, short stories and novels.

5. He has written one play named Mirza Ghalib on the occasion of a drama competition at Fine Arts Drama Competition at Rastrapati Bhawan.