He was a meritorious student, collecting many awards and trophies, as he pursued his education up till his doctorate from the Aligarh Muslim University. Upon completing his education, he returned to his alma mater as a lecturer, before joining Meerut College as the Head of the Urdu department, a post he continued for 17 years.

When Badr was tested on his own couplet

He is known for modernising the Urdu ghazal, making it more colloquial. Such was his fame and popularity that when he was pursuing higher education, during a viva, he was asked to extrapolate his own couplet:

“Ab hum milenge toh kayi log bichad jayenge, intezar aur karo mera agle janam ka (If we meet, many people will be separated; wait a little longer for me, until the next life).”

His son, Tayeb Badr, speaking to the PTI recalled that the examiner who did not know that Badr was one who had authored the couplet, much to his father’s surprise, disagreed with his interpretation.

It was while he was teaching at Meerut College that he met the historian S Irfan Habib, who helped him find a house nearby. “His romantic and political ghazals made him a popular figure in mushairas, and so he was often travelling,” he told indianexpress.com over the phone. “When he could no longer balance his poetic commitments with his teaching, he resigned.”

But, it was ultimately grief that firmed his decision to leave the city. In 1986, communal riots broke out after the courts ordered the locks of the Babri Masjid to be unlocked, and Badr’s house in Shastri Nagar, which was a composite neighbourhood, was attacked, recalls Habib. “The poet moved to Bhopal, from where his wife’s family hailed.” It was after this incident that he wrote the popular couplet:

“Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein, tum taras nahi khate bastiyan jalane mein.”

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The oveure

Badr leaves behind seven collections of poems in Urdu and one in Hindi to his credit, including collections of ghazals Ikai, Kulliyate Bashir Badr, Aamad, Image, Aahat, and Ujale Apni Yadon Ke (The Light of my Memories) in the devnagir script. He authored two books, Azadi Ke Bad Urdu Ghazals Ka Tanqidi Mutala (A Critical Study of the Urdu Ghazal after Independence) , and Biswin Sadi Mein Ghazal (The Ghazal in the Twentieth Century).

The government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri in recognition of his poetic excellence, in 1999.

“He passed away today, but we lost him a decade ago,” Habib said, adding that the poet had been bedridden with Parkinson’s and dementia for a decade.

A luminary of Udu letters, Badr, will continue to be celebrated and remembered across the world.