Mohammad Alvi

Mohammad Alvi (1927–2018) was one of the most prominent modernist poets of Urdu, praised for his "layered simplicity" — short, plain lines that carry a philosophical weight. Born on 10 April 1927 at Ahmedabad, he had little formal schooling in his youth and completed his higher education at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. He began writing as a progressive poet in the late 1940s, but found his own voice in the late 1950s, when he turned to modern Urdu poetry. His collections — *Khali Makaan* (1963), *Aakhiri Din Ki Talash* (1968), *Teesri Kitab* (1978), *Chautha Aasmaan* (1992) and *Raat Idhar Udhar Roshan* (1995) — made him one of the most-read modern ghazal writers; *Chautha Aasmaan* won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992, and he also received the Ghalib Award. He died at Ahmedabad on 29 January 2018, aged 90.