Abdul Hamid Adam

Abdul Hamid Adam was a Pakistani Urdu poet celebrated for simple, musical ghazals in short metres that speak directly to the heart. After his father's early death he was raised by a relative, educated in Lahore, and spent his working life in military accounts, rising to Deputy Assistant Controller before retiring in 1966. He first used the takhallus Akhtar, then Adam, and wrote ghazals, nazms, masnavis and qataat; 84 ghazals, 111 sher and 25 e-books survive under his name, with about four dozen collections in all. His work keeps classical imagery — wine, candle, moth, garden — but treats it with plain language, patience and quiet contentment, and his romantic ghazals made him a popular mushaira voice. He died in Lahore on 10 March 1981.