NEW DELHI, May 24 -- Migrants descending in Delhi from hinterlands of India mostly learn to bypass yearnings of the heart to survive callous settings of a city. Some, however, manage to ride the moorings of their heart to carve an accomplished corner in the pantheon of poets, prose writers and playwrights. Irshad Khan 'Sikandar', a rising poet, lyricist, dramatist and storywriter was among this rare specimen. He penned the ache of life and his own unhealed heart before the same heart failed him on May 18, aged 42, exactly when his admirers were expecting his next offering. Irshad hailed from East UP and thus Bhojpuri was his first language. He soon mastered its literary finesse and began to voice vagaries of life in verse. He never shared but besides poverty, he suffered hardships and heartbreaks in abundance. So much that they began to overflow as creative juices and he made writing his bulwark against tests of time. To his luck, in the early late 90's and early 2000's, Delhi became a chosen destination of small-budget Bhojpuri filmmakers. They would hire the whole crew out of Delhi migrants branching from Bhojpuri backwoods. Actors, actresses, directors, writers, lyricists - all had to be from soil of Ganga doab, where Bhojpuri culture and language bloom in its ethereal vibrance. Migrants, uprooted from their soil, longed for this and filmmakers served this to them in the form of dance and songs, or short-format movies. Such movies were then sold as Compact Disc (CDs) on Delhi pavements. Some popular ones were even screened in single-screen cinema halls of Old Delhi. Once such a crew camped in the trans-Yamuna area to shoot a movie. Someone recommended Irshad's name as decorator of words to help improve diction of actors and actresses. Impressed by the gloss and depth of his lexicon, directors soon hired him as script writer and lyricist for these movies. He sometimes played patchwork roles as an actor as well. Unlike the popular genre of hackneyed emotions and heavy dose of vulgarity in Bhojpuri songs, he composed ballads, love-songs, folksongs, spirituals and remixes that mirrored culture and nothing else. He also introduced ghazal in Bhojpuri songs - a phenomenal step towards taking Bhojpuri music and songs to the realm of literature. Sadly, he soon got disabused and turned to pure Urdu poetry to salvage his craft and satiate his creative cravings. It was during this time that he was approached to pen the title song of Delhi-centric TV serial - Is Rajdhani Mein. His words enumerate dilemmas of living in a metropolis and counsel caution against trusting people without evaluation. The popularity of this song opened hitherto several closed doors for him. He became regular at mushairas (poetic assemblies) and fame started knocking at his doorstep. But poetry notoriously doesn't fill pockets. He had to write songs, scripts and dialogues for Bhojpuri films and for those who could use his writings to peddle their own names. For him, he told me once, it was credit in bank than credit in cast that mattered. "Writing for movies and serials run my kitchen but writing pure poetry and seeing that it is being encouraged by seniors and readers keep the lifeblood of creativity in poets like us flowing," he said. In Delhi World Book Fair 2016, he became sahib-e-kitab (writer of a book) when renowned publication Rajpal & Sons brought his first poetry collection - Aansuon Ka Tarjuman (Translation of Tears). Two years later, it was followed by Doosra Ishq (Second Love). In 2024, the third collection of his poetry, Chand Ke Sirhane Laltain (A Lamp Beside The Moon) came out. He didn't write his poems in Urdu, he chose Devnagari so that his poetry reaches a wider range of readers and could be understood. His poetics is laced with easy-to-understand metaphors and similes. He soon made it a mission to introduce Urdu and its literature to readers that largely read Urdu in Devnagari script. He picked up the story of most famous online poet Jaun Elia where he made him have a conversation with likes of Saadat Hassan Manto and Meer Taqi Meer to tell the present generation that language, its expression and celebration is resistant to religious identities. Language belongs to those who love it. This conversation was published and staged as Jaun Elia Ka Jinn - a drama of its own genre. Famous theatre director Ranjit Kapoor has directed this drama. Similarly, he penned another drama, a comedy, Theke Par Mushaira (A Mushaira On Contract). It's a hilarious take on the culture of mushairas and the life of Delhi poets. It discerns the phenomenon of fake poets that proliferate like fake news. Genuine poets die for attention, faux poets thrive. Irshad himself was very perturbed with this literary bungling and he vented his vendetta in his play. Theatre director Dilip Gupta has directed the staging of this drama. He had also written another play, depicting the life of tawaif Umrao Jan Ada. Titled Ameeran Umrao Ada depicts life of courtesan as a young girl who was yet to be pushed into misfortunes of life and an old Umrao who had passed her prime and lives in Banaras, abandoned and forgotten. This story, yet to be widely staged,has been published as a book. Irshad's writings had begun to catch literary veterans of late. People would be spellbound when he would recite his work in his dulcet voice. Both lovelorn and forlorn were his followers. His expression would always be a confluence of Bhojpuri-Hindi-Urdu. His work would appeal to migrant workers and literary enthusiasts alike. In a limited time of being in literary circles, Irshad had established himself among peers and mavens. Of his peerage and privilege of being a poet, he used to say: Mein Charagh Se Jala Charagh Hoon Roshni Hai Pesha Khandaan Kaa (I am a lamp lit by another lamp Literary service is in my family) Death extinguished this literary lamp too early....