Nazar Muhammad Rashed ( ur, ), (1 August 1910 – 9 October 1975) commonly known as Noon Meem Rashed ( ur, ) or N.M. Rashed, was a Pakistani

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 wri ...

of modern

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 Ghali ...

. Profile of Noon Meem Rashid on rekhta.org website
Retrieved 1 June 2018

Early years

Rashed was born as Nazar Muhammad in a

Janjua The Janjua (also spelt janjua'', Junjua, Janjuah'') is a Rajput clan found predominantly in Pakistan's Punjab Pothohar Plateau. History Connection with the Hindu Shahis The 10th century Arab historian Masudi mentioned that in his time the ki ...

family in the village of Kot Bhaaga, Akaal Garh (now

Alipur Chatha Ali Pur Chattha is a Tehsil and union council of Ali Pur Chattha Tehsil, Wazirabad District, Punjab, Pakistan. Ali Pur Chattha (formerly Akalgarh) is a tehsil of Wazirabad District in the Gujrat Division of Pakistan. It is situated nearly 3 ...

Wazirabad Wazirabad (Urdu/ pa, ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Wazirabad District. Famous for its cutlery products, it is known as the city of cutlery and is also quite famous for its foods. Wazirabad is situated on the banks of t ...

Gujranwala District Gujranwala District (Punjabi and ur, ), is a district that is a part of the Majha region in Punjab, Pakistan. Gujranwala District is bordered by the districts of Gujrat, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura. Gujranwala dist ...

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 a ...

, and earned a master's degree in economics from the

Government College Lahore The Government College University, Lahore (colloquially known as GCU), is a public research university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Opened as Government College, Lahore, in 1864, it became a university in 2002. Overview In 1864, Gov ...

Career

He served for a short time in the Royal Indian Army during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, attaining the rank of captain. Before independence of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in 1947, he worked with

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

and

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

starting in 1942. He was transferred to

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

in 1947 where he worked until 1953. Later he was hired by

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

and had to move to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

for this job. Then, for a short while, he lived in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Later on, he worked for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

in New York. Rashed served the UN and worked in many countries. He is considered to be the 'father of Modernism' in

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 ...

. Along with

Faiz Ahmed Faiz Faiz Ahmad ''Faiz'' (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984; Urdu, Punjabi: فیض احمد فیض) was a Pakistani poet, and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated Pakistani Urdu writers of his time. Out ...

, he is one of the great progressive poets in

Pakistani literature Pakistani literature ( ur, ) is a distinct literature that gradually came to be defined after Pakistan gained nationhood status in 1947, emerging out of literary traditions of the South Asia. The shared tradition of Urdu literature and English l ...

. His readership is limited and recent social changes have further hurt his stature and there seems to be a concerted effort to not to promote his poetry. His first book of

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defi ...

, ''

Mavra ''Mavra'' is a one-act comic opera composed by Igor Stravinsky, and one of the earliest works of Stravinsky's neo-classical period. The libretto, by Boris Kochno, is based on Alexander Pushkin's ''The Little House in Kolomna''. Mavra is about ...

'', was published in 1940 and established him as a pioneering figure in ' free form'

. He retired to England in 1973 and died in a London hospital in 1975.

Bollywood

His poem "''Zindagi sey dartey ho''" was set to music in the 2010

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

movie,

Peepli Live ''Peepli Live'' is a 2010 Indian satirical black comedy film that explores the topic of farmer suicides and the subsequent media and political response. It is written and directed by Anusha Rizvi in her directorial debut, and produced by Aami ...

. It was performed by the Indian music band,

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

, and received critical appreciation as "''hard-hitting''" and "''a gem of a track''" that "''everyone is meant to sing, and mean, at some point in life''".

Bibliography

* ''Mavraa'' (Beyond)-1940 * ''Iran Main Ajnabi'' (A stranger in Iran) * ''La = Insaan'' (Nothingness = Man)- 1969 * ''Gumaan ka Mumkin'' (Speculations) was published after his death in 1976 Profile of Noon Meem Rashid on the-south-asian.com website
Published January 2002, Retrieved 1 June 2018 * ''Maqalat'' (Essays)- Ed. Shima Majeed, 2002.

College hall named after him

., a hall is named after him as "Noon Meem Rashid Hall" at Postgraduate Block Basement.

References

External links

Selected Poetry of N.M. Rashid Translated in English

Kuliyat e Noon Meem Rashid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashed, Noon Meem 1910 births 1975 deaths Punjabi people People from Wazirabad Pakistani poets Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Government College University, Lahore alumni People of British India 20th-century poets Sonneteers