NAGPUR: As an employee at AGMARK, Shahid Kabir was not exactly dealing with words. Checking purity of food stuff was his domain. He applied similar yardsticks to Urdu words and what flowed was pure poetry.

Today marks his 13th death anniversary. Kabir breathed his last on May 11 in 2001, but not before his poetry had been immortalized by singers of different genres, most imminent being Jagjit Singh. City based businessman Shivratan Daga, his good friend and confidante says that there couldn't have been a more genuine and simple person. "I knew him as a person and a poet too. His depth of knowledge showed in his responsiveness and spontaneity."

Rating him high as poet too, Daga says, "One has to read his poetry to understand how profound he was. Lines like 'Har hasi main chupi khauf ki udaasi hai, samandar ke tale bhi zamin pyasi hai' can only come from a deep thinking mind and sensitive heart."

Kabir wrote 350 ghazals, 100 nazms and 70 geet. "His writings are extremely popular in Pakistan also. The ghazal Uski Gali has been sung by Pakistani singer Rais Khan, Munni Begum, Chandan Das and Sabri brothers," says his son Sameer who has given this title to a compilation of his father's work. The book was released recently in the city.

Attributing his father's poetry to his style of carrying forward a conversation, Sameer says, "He would listen to poets at mushairas. Then he would think how a couplet could be presented differently." His take on Ghalib's famous lines Hazaron Kwhaishain Aisee, which he wrote as "Kiye hain itne jahan karam aur ek karam kar de, mere khuda tu meri khwaishaon ko kam kar de," shows his ability to express his own thoughts by taking on famous couplets.

It was during 50s when he was working in Delhi that Kabir got acquainted with poets like Ali Sardar Jafari, Zuber Rizvi and Naresh Kumar Shaad. They were leading the Progressive Writers Movement. An avid reader of Hindi and Urdu literature he got influenced by works of these poets and began toying with words.

"My father wrote a ghazal and sent it to the editor of a popular Urdu Magazine published from Lucknow in those days. He asked the editor to read it and suggest if he should continue writing poetry or quit," says Sameer. "The editor wrote back saying that he should continue writing and the ghazal would be published in the forthcoming issue."

Shahid Kabir had a very conversational style of writing and laid the foundation of modern Urdu poetry in Vidarbha. "He was the link between the old or revayati shayari and the new or Jadid shayari," says another of his close friend Amir Malak of Mehdi Bagh institutions. He was neither an opportunist nor greedy. He had very high self respect and was a private person says Malak. "Though the city knew very less of him yet he was discovered by people like Jagjit Singh and Lata Mangeshkar," adds Malak.

Regretting the fact that Kabir could not get much acclaim, painter Babar Shareef, whose father too was a poet, says that Kabir fell to professional rivalry. "He was totally engrossed in his writings and never expected much from anyone. "He expressed profound thoughts in simple manner as seen in the couplet 'Zameen pe chal na saka, aasmaan se bhi gaya, kata ke par ko parinda udaan se bhi gaya. Tabhah kar gayi pakke makaan ki khwaish, main apne gaon ke kacche makaan se bhi gaya.'

Kabir's poetry earned him many fans and he was a regular at the mushaira held at Red Fort on Independence Day. "He was equally proficient in writing musical compositions, poetry and literature. But his favourite was shayari as he felt that he could say so much in just two line," informs Samir.

First of his poetry to be set to music was a ghazal 'Phoolon ki barsaat' which was sung in qawaali style by Hanif Agrawal. "It was played at every paan shop and tea stall in Mominpura where we lived in those days," says Sameer. But his big break came with a call from Jagjit Singh who had heard the ghazal 'neend se ankh khuli' and wanted to compose it for himself.

"Main nashey main hoon' was among the most popular ones," says Sameer. "He also penned two ghazals on Singh's request. After the Babri Masjid demolition Shahid wrote for him the ghazal 'Main naa Hindu, na Musalman mujhe jeene do'. The other was when Jagjit was to record a duet with Lata Mangeshkar. Kabir penned the famous ghazal 'Gham ka Khazana tera bhi hai mera bhi'.