Lucknow’s poet drives rickshaw to beat poverty

Saeed Hashmi/Lucknow

In India, a literally career surely does not make one financially sound yet when a reputed poet is forced to ply a passenger vehicle to manage his life, it’s time for the society to sit up and think of its attitude towards the men of letters.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a once-renowned poet who had not been coming to the poetic symposium for many years, was suddenly discovered ferrying passengers in his e-rickshaw to make both ends meet.

This scribe discovered Hamid Lakhnavi, the man who once rendered his flawless Urdu poetry in symposiums and shared the stage with stalwarts of Urdu literature, while he struck a conversation with the driver of his e-rickshaw that he had hired for local travel in the city of Nawabs.

Hamid Lakhnavi said that he has been participating in Mushairas for many years. He has shared the stage with big Urdu poets like Malikzada Manzoor Ahmed, Manjar Bhopali, Rahat Indori, Majid Deobandi, Jauhar Kanpuri, Shabina Adeeb, Naseem Nakhat, Anwar Jalalpuri, Adil Lucknawi etc.

He said that he has also participated in the Lucknow Mushaira function organized under the aegis of Urdu Academy.

Hamid Lakhnavi told this scribe that he was able to manage his life with the money he earned from his literary work and as remuneration from the poetic symposiums.

Life was good for Hamid and he got married five years ago and soon became the father of two.

As the expenses of a family rose, he found it difficult to manage with what he was making from his love of poetry. As the situation worsened, he started running an e-rickshaw to take care of his family.

Now h has been driving e-rickshaw for about six years. His earnings fell as the covid-induced lockdown was imposed in the city. He told the scribe that he felt very sad about not being able to pay the school fees of his children.

He said that so far no individual or organization had come forward to help him although Lucknow is known as the citadel of Urdu literature. “I tried for a scholarship in Urdu Academy but I could not follow it up due to a long procedure involving the paperwork in the lockdown. Maybe I should try again,” he said.