Maulana Hasrat Mohani (b. 1875 Unnao, d. 1951 Lucknow) (Urdu: مولانا حسرت موہانی) was a Romantic Poet of Urdu language, journalist, politician, parliamentarian and a fearless freedom fighter of Indian Sub-continent.

The real name of Maulana was Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan. Hasrat was his pen name which he used in the Urdu poetry. Similarly the word Mohani refers to the native place of Mohan where he was born.

The real name of Hasrat Mohani was Syed Fazl-ul-Hasan. He was born in 1875 at Mohan (town) in the Unnao district of United Province in British India. Since he was a poet of Urdu, he had opted the pen name of Hasrat Mohani in urdu shayri.

Hasrat Mohani was not just a maverick when it came to publicly championing the radical thinking of Tilak. He also wrote verses expressing deep love for Krishna, and often went to Mathura to celebrate Krishna Janmashtami.

Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a brilliant and hardworking student as well as a topper in his first state level exams. Later, he studied in Aligarh Muslim University, where some of his colleagues were Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali. His teachers in poetry were Tasleem Lucknawi and Naseem Dehlvi.

Hasrat is a popular pen name for Urdu poets in India and Pakistan. It is an Urdu word meaning "unfulfilled wish", which is derived from the Arabic word "Hasrah". One reason this word is favored by Urdu poets is that it has melancholy undertones. Notable Urdu poets that use this pen name include: Muhammad Abdul Qadeer Siddiqi Qadri Hasrat, Hasrat Jaipuri and Hasrat Mohani.

An Indian revolutionary Ashfaqulla Khan also used to write Urdu poetry with this pen name. His popular couplet "Jindagi baad-e-fanaa tujhko milegii 'Hasrat', Teraa jiinaa tere marne ki badault hogaa." (en: O Hasrat! thou would get real life after thy death, Thou shall live in the hearts of people after thy sacrifice.)

Ali Sardar Jafri (Hindi: अली सरदार जाफरी, Urdu: علی سردار جعفری; November 29, 1913 – August 1, 2000) was an Urdu writer, poet, critic and film lyricist from India.

Ali Sardar Jafri was born in an aristocratic family in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, where he spent his formative years.

His early influences were Josh Malihabadi, lyricist Jigar Muradabadi and Firaq Gorakhpuri. In 1933, he joined Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and soon got exposed to Communist ideology, subsequently he was expelled from the University in 1936, for ‘political reasons’. Eventually he graduated from Zakir Husain College (Delhi College), Delhi University in 1938, though his post graduation studies at Lucknow University ended prematurely following his arrest during 1940-41 for writing anti-War poems, and taking part in Congress led political activities as Secretary of the university's Students' Union.

Ali Sardar Jafri published his first collection of short stories titled, Manzil (Destination) in 1938, which started his literary career, and his first collection of poems, Parvaz (Flight) came out in 1944. In 1936, he presided over the first conference of Progressive Writers' Movement in Lucknow, a stature he maintain for the rest of his life. In 1939, he became co-editor of Naya Adab, a literary journal devoted to the Progressive Writers' Movement, and the journal continued til 1949.

Chitra Singh (née Dutta) is a renowned Indian Ghazal singer. She was married to Jagjit Singh, a prominent Ghazal singer who died on October 10 2011. They formed a highly popular duet team and are considered pioneers of modern Ghazal singing.^{[citation needed]}

Chitra Dutta was born in a Bengali family. She had no formal musical training, but had strong roots of music in her family. She learned much of her music by listening to her mother's music teacher. She had a daughter, Monica (from her previous marriage) who committed suicide in 2009. Jagjit and Chitra's only son Vivek died in an accident in July 1990. Chitra stopped singing after this.

Chitra Singh met Jagjit Singh in Mumbai (then known as Bombay), India, in the late 1960s, and they started a musical career together by singing jingles for various advertisements. Their career took off with the launching of The Unforgettables, an album with several firsts to its credit. Their public singing before large audiences revolutionized ghazal singing. Until then, ghazal singing had been confined to musical performances ("mehfils") before small audiences consisting primarily of the elite in the society.