Remembering renowned Urdu poet Qateel Shifai on his birth anniversary

• News By : Web Desk
• 2021-12-24 06:51:09

LAHORE: 24, DECEMBER, 2021: Renowned Urdu poet Qateel Shifai, real name Aurangzeb Khan is being remembered on his birth anniversary today (Friday).
He was born on 24th December 1919 in Mansehra.
"Qateel" was his "takhallus" and "Shifai" was in honour of his Ustaad Hakim Mohammed "Shifai" whom he considered his mentor.
He adopted Qateel Shifai as his pen name in 1938 under which he was known in the world of Urdu poetry.
Due to his father’s early death, Qateel was forced to quit his education and started his own sporting goods shop. Being unsuccessful in his business, he decided to move to Rawalpindi, where he started working for a transport company and earned about 60 Rupees a month.
In 1946, he was called to Lahore by Nazir Ahmed to work as the assistant editor of the monthly ‘Adab-e-Latif’, a literary magazine published since 1936. His first ghazal was published in the Lahore weekly ‘Star’, edited by Qamar Jalalabadi.
In January 1947, Qateel was asked to pen the songs of a film by a Lahore based film producer. The first film he penned the lyrics for was “Teri Yaad”. After that there was no looking back. He won numerous awards as a lyricist. Many of his poem collections were published, one amongst them being “Mutriba” which got him the highest literature award in Pakistan.
Over 20 collections of verse and over 2,500 songs for Pakistani and Indian films were published. His poetry has been translated into numerous languages including Hindi, Gujarati, English, Russian and Chinese.
Qateel Shifai received the 'Pride of Performance Award' in 1994 for his contribution to literature, 'Adamjee Award', 'Naqoosh Award', 'Abbasin Arts Council Award' and 'Amir Khusro Award' in India.
Qateel died on 11 July 2001 in Lahore. (04)

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