6 min readMay 30, 2026 07:00 PM IST First published on: May 30, 2026 at 07:00 PM ISTIn the summer of 1972, just months after the Indo-Pak war redrew the map of South Asia, leading to the creation of Bangladesh, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto met in Shimla in an attempt to negotiate an uncertain future. Sometime during the talks, Bhutto recited a couplet by Bashir Badr, a poet who was also a professor at Meerut College then. Bhutto said, “Dushmani jamkar karo lekin ye gunjaish rahe / Jab kabhi hum dost ho jaayen toh sharminda na ho (Practice your enmity fiercely, but leave this much space: If we ever become friends again, let us not feel ashamed).” Amid the tension of negotiation and mistrust, the couplet expressed what even the most careful diplomacy sometimes fails at: The idea of dignity, a grace that you accord to even your fiercest enemy.Over five decades later, the Shimla Agreement lies suspended in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and the conflict in its aftermath. But these lines by Badr, who died in Bhopal on May 28 due to a prolonged illness, remain relevant even today. More so in an era of hardened borders and hardening rhetoric. Here was an idea, asking that some room be left for friendship, one that cultural ambassadors on both sides of the border continue to harbour.AdvertisementCongress President Mallikarjun Kharge recited the same couplet in 2018 in Parliament for the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Modi also used Badr’s writing to retort: “Jee bahut chahta hai sach bolein, kya karein haunsla nahi hota (The heart truly wants to speak the truth, but what to do, there is no courage).”It is notable that at a time when much Urdu verse remained rooted in classical idioms, somewhat intimidating for a younger generation, Badr wrote in a language that ordinary readers could instantly connect with. Taking away unnecessary grandeur, this poetry was meaningful and moving without trying too hard. In fact, Ujaale apni yaadon ke, the popular programme on Vividh Bharti took its name from Badr’s popular couplet: “Ujaale apni yaadon ke hamaare saath rehne do / Na jaane kis gali mein zindagi ki shaam ho jaaye (Let the light of your memories stay with us, for we do not know in which lane the evening of life may fall).”Also Read | How Michael Jackson moonwalked back into the streaming ageBorn Syed Muhammad Bashir in 1935 in Ayodhya, the fourth child of a police accountant and a homemaker, he used the pen name Badr (Arabic for full moon). While the family had little to do with poetry, much attention was paid to education and discipline. After his master’s degree and a PhD from Aligarh Muslim University, Badr taught at the same university, followed by a teaching stint at Meerut College for 17 years.AdvertisementIt was in 1987 that Badr’s house in Meerut was looted and set ablaze during communal violence. His home was destroyed, along with a vast collection of books and thousands of unpublished verses. Badr was in Delhi, and his family narrowly escaped. He lost years of creative work and wrote of his anguish: “Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein/ Tum taras nahin khaate bastiyaan jalaane mein (People break themselves trying to build a home, Yet you feel no pity in burning entire settlements).” The verse was a powerful yet emotional response and continues to be cited in various moments of communal fracture even today.Badr would recite all of his new poetry to filmmaker and composer Vishal Bhardwaj, who lived in Meerut at the same time as Badr and would frequent his home. When he heard of the destruction of Badr’s home, he was heartbroken and attempted to reconstruct some of the poetry from memory and returned to Badr. It helped restore not just some of his poetry but also Badr’s belief in people and their humanity. He had stopped writing for a while after the incident. Badr then moved to Bhopal and was given the Chairmanship of the Madhya Pradesh Urdu Academy.Badr’s poetry also found a significant life when ghazal singers Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh, and Chandan Das brought it to millions of homes. The deceptively simple writing came with an inherent musicality and was not heavy like the older, traditional ghazals. Badr would stick to bolchaal ki bhasha, mostly Hindustani in his writing about first love, missed encounters, fragile companionships, humiliations — all numerous stories of modern relationships. Ali’s “Aye husn-e-beparwah tujhe, shabnam kahun, shola kahun” came from the other side of the border at a time when ghazals were moving away from gatherings to recordings, helping it travel well in the Subcontinent. But it was Jagjit Singh, who sang a lot of Badr’s poetry, taking it beyond literary circles and into people’s living rooms. In fact, with Singh, Badr’s ghazals reached those who would have otherwise not picked up his books or attended a mushaira.you may likeTowards the end, due to Alzheimer’s, Badr’s memory could no longer find any of the lines he wrote — about 18,000 of them. The poet whose words had become part of everyday conversation across the Subcontinent was unable to recall them himself. In a poignant video from a few years ago, his wife can be seen helping him remember a few of the lines.“Aaj Urdu aur gareeb ho gayi (Today, Urdu has become even poorer),” wrote poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar on social media. In that line, Akhtar was not just mourning the loss of a great poet and a senior artist. It was also an ode to a writer who carried the language into the lives of ordinary people. With that simplicity and effortlessness in the cadence, Badr will not be left preserved in books. His lines will continue to echo in our daily lives. Just like the tender: “Ham bhi darya hain hamen apna hunar maaloom hai / Jis taraf bhi chal padenge raasta ho jaayega (We too are rivers, and we know our worth / Whichever way we flow, a path will open.)”The writer is senior assistant editor, The Indian Express. suanshu.khurana@expressindia.com