Anwar Nadeem In Conversation With Dr Tariq Qamar (Part 1) by Navras J. Aafreedi published on 2018-10-26T01:49:19Z Anwar Nadeem (22 October 1937 - 9 August 2017) was an eminent Urdu poet and writer, who would always be remembered for his most significant contributions to Urdu literature, in both prose and poetry. This interview of his was broadcast from the Lucknow station of All India Radio a couple of years before his death, circa 2015. Anwar Nadeem was born in Malihabad in District Lucknow on 22 October 1937 and lived in the city of Lucknow since the age of ten. He received his secondary education at Amiruddaula Islamia Inter College, Lucknow and earned the degree of BA in Urdu and English from the University of Lucknow. Not having to bother about making a living, blessed as he was with ancestral wealth to support himself, he devoted himself completely to the service of Urdu literature as a full time poet and writer. In doing so he continued his family legacy of literary services. Most of his direct lineal ancestors were eminent Urdu and Farsi poets. Josh Malihabadi was his grandmother's first cousin. Anwar Nadeem wrote a series of books, viz., SAFARNAAMAA (A collection of selected poems) (1974), JALTE TAVE KI MUSKURAAHAT (Collection of reportages of mushairas) (1985), KIRCHEIN (a film script) (1985), JAI SHRI RAM (Collection of nazms) (1992) [Released in the Devanagri alphabet in 1993], MAIDAAN (Collection of ghazals) (1994), released in the Devanagari script in 1995, HAMAARE HAR ISHAARE MEIN MUHAB'BAT KAARFARMAA HAI (Collection of essays) (2012), KIRCHEIN (an Urdu film script in Devanagari script) (2013) and YE KAUN MERE QAREEB AAYAA (collection of selected poems) (2014). He was active in theatre as an actor in his youth and made a return to acting decades later when he did a cameo in J P Dutta's cinematic adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's groundbreaking novel Umrao Jaan Adaa (1899). He played Ruswa in the eponymous film, released in 2006. He passed away in Lucknow, where he lived all his life, on 9 August, 2017. He is survived by his wife and a son, both of them academics, a daughter-in-law, who is a corporate lawyer, and a grand-daughter and a grandson yet to reach teenage.
