Makhmoor Saeedi

Tonk's wandering bird — he still believes the promise, though he has tested it a thousand times. Makhmoor Saeedi (1938–2010), born Sultan Mohammad Khan on 31 December 1938 at Tonk in Rajasthan, was an Indian Urdu poet, critic, translator and journalist, and one of the finest modern voices to come out of Tonk. His father, Ahmed Khan Nazish, was himself a noted Urdu poet. Schooled at Tonk and then at Agra, he moved to Delhi after graduation and gave his life to Urdu letters — writing ghazals and nazms, rubai, qataa, doha and geet, and working in criticism, journalism and translation, including a verse rendering of the Bhagavad Gita into Urdu. His poetry collections include Sabrang, Siyah bar Safed, Awaaz ka Jism (1972), Guftani, Baans ke Jangalon se Guzarti Hawa (1983), Diwaar-o-Dar ke Darmiyan (1994), Umr-e-Guzishta ka Hisab in two volumes, and Raasta aur Main (2003). He was long associated with the Delhi magazine Tahrik, and his work won the Sahitya Akademi Award. He died on 2 March 2010 at Jaipur, aged 71, and was buried at Tonk.