He lived a life unsung. And died unwept for. Like Meer Taqi Meer, poetry and penury sum up the life of Ikramuddin Khan ‘Sarshar’ Bulandshahri, noted Urdu poet who breathed his last on May 16 on a hospital bed in Ahmedabad. In fact, it marked the tragic end of the life of a man who spent the best part of his youth carefree in the lap of nature amid singing birds and gushing streams in his native Echana in Bulandshahr.Coming to Ahmedabad in 1948 in search of employment changed all that. For ever. And he longed to get back to his past for the rest of his life. Apart from his poor economic condition and bouts of madness in between, Sarshar was endowed with an enviable wealth of love and affection from people across the social spectrum. Anyone who has seen him can never imagine Sarshar without khadi kurta-pyjama, a walking stick and a black blanket (even in the scorching heat).After the mill where he was working was closed down, he took to selling old coins and postage stamps. In fact, he became a familiar figure outside the general post office where he would sit through the day as the sole breadwinner till illness struck. Official and other help came but it was too meagre to really help. So, when he got the Sahitya Gaurav Puraskar from the Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Akademi last year, Rs 25,000 was the biggest sum he had ever received in his life in one go. It is not that the recognition came belatedly, it came after the less deserving had been honoured.Despite all his personal tragedies, he was a jovial person and his poetry never betrayed the bitterness within. Of course his spartan lifestyle matched his carefree temperament and he never paid undue respect to anyone, especially when expected or demanded.A victim of petty groupism and intellectual jealousy, he was brutally ignored at times in literary circles at the local level but there was no stopping him gaining acclaim and respect at the national level where merit mattered. Even his first (and last) collection of 50 years’ poetry was published only four years ago from Delhi by his well-wisher Zubair Rizvi, who edits Zehn-e-Jadeed, a quarterly literary journal of repute.He would often take pride in the fact that he was encouraged by the likes of Kaifi Azmi, Ahmed Suroor and Mohammad Saleemur Rahman in the ’50s. Later on, Sarshar, who is known for doha composition and a photographic presentation of nature and rural landscape in his works, offered shelter to Nida Fazli in his formative years. Today, Nida needs no introduction as a lyricist and a poet but Sarshar always regretted, till the last, that Nida’s autobiography finds no mention of this old association.
