Brij Narayan Chakbast (19 January 1882 12 February 1926), also spelled as Brij Narain Chakbast, was a

British Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

Urdu poet.

Life

Chakbast (1882–1926) was an Urdu poet. He was born on 19 January 1882 in a Kashmiri Pandit family settled in North India in the 15th century A.D.. Chakbast was born in Faizabad (near Lucknow) in 1882. His father Pandit Udit Narayan Chakbast, was born at Lucknow in, circa 1843, and he was also a poet. Pandit Udit Narayan was deputy collector, the highest post that any Indian could have at that time. After the death of his father in 1887, the family moved to Lucknow and they started living in Kashmiri Mohalla of Lucknow. Chakbast was educated in Lucknow, and he became a successful lawyer. Chakbast married in 1905, but lost his wife and first child in 1906. He married again in 1907, and settled down as a practising lawyer at Lucknow. On 12 February 1926, he collapsed at the railway station in Rae Bareli and died a few hours later at the age of 44. Chakbast made a thorough study of Urdu poetry. He defended

Daya Shankar Kaul Nasim Daya Shankar Kaul "Nasim" (1811 1845) was an Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Home Rule and actively participated in the Home Rule Movement.

Education

Chakbast's early education was in Faizabad. After his father's death his family moved to Lucknow, and it was here he completed his remaining education. He earned his degree of B.A. in 1905, and L.L.B. in 1907, from

Canning College Canning College is a specialist international education institution delivering programs that provide international students with pathways into universities. It delivers programs for Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 (WA Certificate of Education and WA ...

, Lucknow, which was affiliated with Allahabad University at that time. Later, he became a successful lawyer.

Works

Chakbast was primarily a poet but his prose is also considered at par with his poetry. Chakbast's premature death was a great loss for Urdu but whatever he left is exemplary and is considered among the gems of Urdu literature. He was strongly influenced by Ghalib, Mir Anis and Aatish. Chakbast was primarily a nazm poet. He began his poetic career with a nazm in 1894. He wrote nazms, mathnavi, a play, and about 50 ghazals. His Ramayan ka ek Scene is strongly reminiscent of Marsiya of Mir Anis. His verses from his ghazal :''Zindagi kya hai anasir mein zahur-e tarteeb,'' :''Maut kya hai ini ajza ka pareshan hona'' :''Zarra Zarra hai mere Kashmir ka mehmaan nawaaz,'' :''raah mein pathar ke tukdoon ne diya pani mujhe'' ''Subh-e Watan'' is collected works of Chakbast as its title and many of its poems reflect about his intense patriotism, predominantly a central theme of his poetry. ''Khak-e-Hind'' ''Gulzar-e-Naseem'' a masnavi, ''Ramayan ka ek scene'' musaddas ''Nala-e-Dard'' ''Nala-e-Yaas'', and a play named ''Kamla'' ''Kulliyate-Chakbast'' and ''Maqalaat-e-Chakbast'' is the complete collection of Chakbast's works in poetry and prose that was published posthumously on the birth centenary of the poet, compiled by Kalidas Gupta 'Raza' around 1983.

Legacy

The 2015 film

Masaan ''Masaan'' (; also known as ''Fly Away Solo'' in English) is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language independent drama film and starring Richa Chadda and Vicky Kaushal in lead roles. It is Kaushal's debut Hindi film, and is also the directorial debut of ...

starts with and contains various examples of Urdu poetry by Chakbast along with the works of

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Akbar Allahabadi Syed Akbar Hussain, popularly known as Akbar Allahabadi (16 November 1846 – 9 September 1921) was an Indian Urdu poet in the genre of satire. Life and career Akbar Allahabadi was born in the town of Bara, eleven miles from Allahabad, to a fa ...

, Mirza Ghalib and

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. Explaining this as a conscious tribute, the film's lyrics writer Varun Grover explained that he wanted to show Shaalu (portrayed by Shweta Tripathi) as a person whose hobby is to read Hindi poetry and shaayari, as this is a common hobby of millennial and generation x youngsters in Northern India, especially when in love, but this aspect is rarely shown in Hindi films.

References

External links