Khalish Dehlavi, who was born Kanwar Krishan Singh Bhayana, is a successful engineer and well-known

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. ''The Hindu'' highlighted the fact that, unusually, he has excelled in two very different fields: "Khalish is also a civil engineer who has designed the Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, and the election commissioner's office on the city's Ashoka Road. Poetry is Khalish's passion. Though he thanks his construction business for providing him with the luxuries of life, it is at a poetic soiree that Khalish comes into his own." He was born in 1935 in the state of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. He graduated from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (also called Indore University) with a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

, but prior to that he obtained his first degree from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

. His late father Shri Mohan Lal Bhayana, an

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

himself, advised him to study

Urdu literature Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and ''nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of t ...

. After joining Aligarh Muslim University, he mastered the Urdu language and Urdu literature and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. He became deeply involved in

Urdu poetry Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghalib ...

and actively participated in '' Mushairas''. He adopted the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

''"Khalish"'' and came to be known popularly as ''"Khalish Dehlavi"''. He has written for almost all Urdu

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

s in

, including ''

Biswin Sadi ''Biswin Sadi'' is an Urdu language literary magazine in India. Founded in 1937, ''Biswin Sadi'' is one of the oldest Urdu magazines in India. Many of the top Urdu writers like Amrita Pritam, Kashmiri Lal Zakir, Khushwant Singh, Krishan Chander a ...

''. He also has many

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

publications to his credit. Khalish Dehlavi has been writing for the last fifty years and has now occupied an honourable position in Urdu and Hindi literature. He has received many awards and citations from eminent personalities like the former

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of: * Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India * Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor * Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player * ...

, the former

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Shri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, ...

Inder Kumar Gujral, along with

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

s and music personalities including Padmashree Saghar Nizami,

Jan Nisar Akhtar Jan Nisar Akhtar (18 February 1914 – 19 August 1976) was an Indian poet of Urdu ghazals and nazms, and a part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, who was also a lyricist for Bollywood. He was son of Muztar Khairabadi and great grandson ...

, Makhmoor Sayeedi, Rehman Nayyar, and Naushad.

Works

Khalish Dehlavi's most recently published book is ''Khalish: An anthology of Urdu couplets'' (AuthorHouse, 2006. ). This book also contains

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

s of his

couplet A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

s. Khalish Dehlavi’s other published books include: * ''Hasraten'' * ''Yeh Qurbaten yeh Dooriyan'' * ''Kuch Baaten Unki'' * ''Chandni Ka Dhuan'' * ''Mauj-e-Saba'' * ''Harf-e-Nawan''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dehlavi, Khalish Urdu-language poets from India Indian male poets 20th-century Indian Muslims Aligarh Muslim University alumni 1935 births Living people