Jnaab Madan Maholvi (1936 - 2005) , was my ustaad (teacher). I learnt the taste of Urdu Shayri from him . An accomplished painter , sculptor and poet : Madan Maholvi was at ease and regular practitioner of multiple art forms. A student of Shimla Fine Arts college , he practiced and taught these art forms to high schoolers , under grads and teachers through his life.

A masters in history and an analyst of religion, he also has huge unpublished work on "Jain Dharma in Haryana"

This online resource Maholvi-nama is a collection of his published and unpublished work . Mostly poems and short stories.

In late eighties, Haryana Urdu Academy published his Shayri in three covers. Two in Urdu script and one in Devnagri script.

Publishing Urdu poetry in Hindi (Devnagri) script was a bold move for that time. In a way it opened the door for non Urdu natives to a new and distinct style of poetry. Following the tradition, I have tried to provide Hinglish transliteration wherever possible to make this work accessible to those who have difficulty reading devnagri script. The transliteration and translation is a work in progress.

फ़िक्र के परिंदे (Birds of thought)

Published in 1989 in Devnagri script, this books is a collection of his chosen poems from two previous urdu titles. Recognizing the effort to bring Urdu Shayri to Hindi, the book was forwarded by famous Hindi poet Shri Khushi Ram Sharma Vashisht, then Rajya Kavi of Haryana - India. Book received critical acclaim in the local circles of Hindi & Urdu poetry.

In the words of Shri Krishna chandra Paagal , a local Hindi writer and a member of Adbi sangam Kurukshetra

जगह जगह जिंदगी की सच्चाइयों, सुख-दुःख, कलह, उग्रवाद, मानवीय मूल्यों का बिखराव तथा वर्तमान की भयानक चुनौतियों के सजीव चित्र घंटों अपनी ओर देखने को मज़बूर करते हैं । सिद्धहस्त चित्रकार के सजीव रंग तथा कवि की कोमल अनुभूतियों का अनूठा सम्मिश्रण दिल की गहराइयों में अनायास ही उतरता चला जाता है

रास्ता तो मिले (In search of Path)

This is a collection of 43 unpublished poems, written in a specific style of Urdu Poetry called Nazm. A Nazm is a free flowing text that explores one specific feeling or emotion. It can be topical and imbibe certain flow but the writer is free to choose or ignore the rhythm. Nazm represents a freedom from the rule based poetry. The idea is to have the writer as much leeway as she needs to express a thought. That is the reason Nazm was proclaimed to be the voice of progressive Tarakki Yafta poets. It was embraced by likes of Kaifi Azmi in his early days as an expression of the progressive movement.

The book is about self discovery. Poet seeks himself amidst the chaotic eighties of India - a struggle between hope and failures , the growing pains of the society as much as within.

In a way the poetical format - Nazm is a very apt choice for the topic at hand "Show me the path" . He is judicious with the words without compromising the freedom of the medium.

Creative commons and open source credits

This work is under creative commons licence. You are free to use , copy , redesign any which you you like as long as you visibly attribute the original as under

Title Fikr Ke Parinde or Rasta Tau Mile by Madan Maholvi (poems.shutri.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • The online presentation of the book is through an "open source" documentation tool "mdbook". You may click on three horizontal bars at the top left corner of the screen to open a side panel to access the poems sorted in a index style.
  • The open access project is hosted at Github

Contributions

Please feel free to visit the repository at Github — the second icon from top left. You may raise issues if you see any technical or literary discrepancies.

I am looking for help to translate these poems in other languages - particularly in English. I will provide technical assistance and publishing support with due recognition for your help as a contributor. If you have a taste for the poetry and command on other languages , please contact me through email

And more importantly please spread the word for these amazing poems. I truly feel they deserve a wider audience.

Web publisher

Ashutosh