Mushaira at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park made Indori Awadh’s favourite

LUCKNOW: He was only in his 20s, frail in body but heavy with words and hair flowing till his shoulders when Rahat Indori was called to Lucknow for the first time to be part of a mushaira in 1970.
The renowned poet, who breathed his last at the age of 70 following cardiac arrest on Tuesday, was little known in the world of poetry then but his name was recommended by famous Lucknow poet Wali Aasi.That not only beckoned him to the city but began his chapter with Lucknow. Half a century later, on Tuesday, the city was filled with grief as soon as news of his demise was confirmed.
“Indori was not very well known at that time but Wali Aasi sahab recommended that he be called to Lucknow for the next mushaira. It was held at Begum Hazrat Mahal park,” said 74-year-old Athar Nabi, who organised poetry festivals under the aegis of Hindi Urdu Sahitya Award Committee.
Nabi claimed that it was from here on that Indori and his poetry became an inevitable part of mushairas in Lucknow and around such as the acclaimed Deva Shareef mushaira and Meerut Nauchandi mushaira.
“During Vishnukant Shastri’s tenure as UP governor, the committee had felicitated Rahat Indori and Gopichand Narang,” he added.
The son of renowned poet Prof Malikzada Manzoor who compered the acclaimed DCM Mushaira of Delhi for over 60 years, Pervez, told TOI that it was his father who got Indori to a bigger mushaira in Lucknow in 1976.
“The mushaira was held at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park during the Emergency. President of the country Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and then Congress party president Dev Kant Barua had come for the mushaira and ND Tiwari was chairman of the reception committee,” reminisced Pervez, who was its convener. The Malikzada family, which resided in Old City’s Hasnain Market on Victoria Street then, was a regular haunt of poets in the city and those travelling from other places.
“Rahat sahab used to come to our house very often and he would recite stories from such programmes, his writings and have a good time. He was very swift in his art. He was also a painter but that got sidelined when he got busy in this world. Covers of most of his books and his daughter’s wedding card were designed by him,” shared Pervez.
There was more to Lucknow though that attracted Rahat sahab. “When in Lucknow, he could be easily found at the book shop of poet Wali Aasi in Aminabad. It was one place every poet would visit and spend hours at,” added Nabi.
“Once he said that he did poetry for love and words were a medium to spread both love and hate. He enjoyed this prowess of language and the finesse of tongue in Lucknow,” he added.