Shahryar’s recitations at mushairas bore a trademark nonchalance. A languid drawl. No high notes. No shrill excesses. Much like his poetry, that spoke to you like an intimate friend, yet touched the soul. It is this timeless quality of his poetry that Rakshanda Jalil brings out deftly in her book Shahryar: A Life in Poetry. It unravels the essence of his poetic vision, which was “to speak of the world, to the world”.
Born as Kunwar Akhlaq Muhammed Khan, he took Shahryar as a nom de plume in his later years. It was deemed that Shahryar would join the police force like his father and elder brother. But the rich cultural life in the Aligarh Muslim University of the 1950s and the active encouragement of friends and mentors ensured that Shahryar found his calling as a poet and academic.
Expatiation Riddled By A Tale 
On The Shelf 
