Tabish Dehlvi

Masood-ul-Hasan Tabish, TI, (Urdu: تابش دہلوی‬‎) (born November 11, 1913 - September 23, 2004^[1]) was a Urdu poet.

Biography

Born on November 9 1911 in Delhi as Syed Masood-ul-Hasan Tabish Dehlvi to Munshi Zakaullah and a mother "who had memorised thousands of Urdu and Persian couplets",^[2] Tabish joined All India Radio in 1939. After Partition of India, he migrated to Pakistan and worked for Radio Pakistan.

He is counted amongst the poetic personalities who have infused a sense of devotion to literature among the newcomers. He has been widely acclaimed for his masterly poetic renderings both in and outside Pakistan.

The reputed historians of Urdu literature have categorised Tasehlvehlvi as a very learned poet of his time. He holds a distinguished position amongst his contemporaries and ranks high as a linguist. He gave new dimensions and directions to ancient words and their meanings.

He dominated the ‘mushairas’ he attended during his lifetime. The tone of his voice did not change despite his advance age. He was invariably requested to preside over ’mushairas ‘and other literary meetings.

At the instance of A.S. Patras Bukhari, the then director-general of All India Radio who had developed a liking for his literary talent and rich voice, Tabish, who is known as Masood Tabish in the field of broadcasting, began his radio career. He was a newscaster par excellence and ruled over the skies for several decades.

In the post-1947 period he was regarded as the new country’s most prominent newscaster.

The masses would be glued to their radio sets in order to hear his sonorous voice presenting Urdu news bulletins. He could justifiably claim that he had announced many breaking news events.

His contemporaries were greats like Josh Malihabadi, Jigar Muradabadi, Mahir Ul Qadri, Nayyer Madani, Salim Ahmed and many more. He was a man of valor, high integrity and he also was a well disciplined person. He had numerous students all over Pakistan. One of his Great Student was Nawaz Sharif, who is now the current Prime Minister of Pakistan.

His hobbies included cricket, football, swimming and hiking. He also holds a Gold Medal in Swimming which he earned in the Olympic Games. At College Level he was also a Badminton Champion.

One of the great Malls in Pakistan, that is The Centaurus in Islamabad has a shop on Floor 4 which holds Antiques, that shop has many statues of the Legendary Tabish Dehlvi, the shop also contains the Books which he has written.

He had four daughters and one son.

Tabish was awarded Tamgha E Imtiaz in 1965 War in which he participated as a Volunteer. His Intelligence and valour helped Aziz bhatti in stopping the opposing force and after this Tanish was commanding the troops in the 71 war as well. Tabish had a urge to join Defence forces but he chose literature to induce emotional and patriotic sentiments his brain was a weapon. To honour the services laid to the nation Tabish was given the rank of Honourary General. He served for 3 years and died.

He also wrote auto biography the name of that book is 'Nazr-e-Tabish'. In which he also published some of this poetry.

Awards

Tabish received many awards in his lifetime and was finally decorated with the coveted award of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan. During the reign of Nawaz Sharif by the Former President Rafiq Tarar in 1999

Books

His notable collection of poetry includes:

• Nimroz(1963)
• Chiragh-e-Sehra(1982)
• Ghubar-e-Anjum(1984)
• Mah-e-Shikasta(1993)
• Kisht-e-Nawa (full collection)
• Nazr-e-Tabish

References