Barq Dehlvi

Delhi's later voice — the doorstep vigil, the night with no dawn, and the gaze that cannot look away. Barq Dehlvi (July 1884 – 9 February 1936), whose real name was Munshi Maharaj Bahadur, was a later voice of Delhi's poetry, born into a Kayastha family of the old city whose men had served in high places at the Mughal court. His father, Munshi Har Narayan Das, was a poet of standing, and his maternal grandfather, Daulat Ram 'Ibrat', kept a diwan and had learned his craft from Zauq, the court poet of the last Mughal king. Barq learned his own craft under Agha Shair Qazalbash. He wrote ghazals, nazms and couplets, and in his early years plays as well — Krishna Avatar and Savitri were staged more than once. His books of verse were Krishna Darpan (1927), Matla-i-Anwar (1929) and Harf-e-Natamaam, published after his death in 1941. His ghazals carry the old Delhi manner into a new century: the doorstep where the lover waits, the night of separation with no dawn in sight, the beloved's face that holds the eye prisoner. He died at Panipat on 9 February 1936.