I still clearly remember that early cold morning in March 1982. I was to catch my train to Madras the same evening. Before that I was visiting my maternal uncle’s house.

In the early morning news bulletin on the radio the newsreader’s sad voice came – “Firaq Gorakhpuri is no more. He died at age 85 in New Delhi.” 

आने वाली नस्लें तुम पर फ़ख़्र करेंगी हम-असरो
जब भी उन को ध्यान आएगा तुमने 'फ़िराक़' को देखा है

(Future generations will be proud of you my friends, whenever they will remember that you have seen 'Firaq')

Yes, I’m proud that I have met the legend immediately after the Emergency was lifted and election dates were announced. I was quiet young, when I accompanied a journalist, a family friend to Allahabad. 

The journalist I accompanied was an RSS member and was very frustrated with the much-publicised “Document of Surrender”, written to Indira Gandhi by 32 RSS leaders including Dattopant Thengadi, promising support to the Emergency if all RSS workers were released from prison. 

It was the ticket to freedom those days. Sign a letter to pledge allegiance to Indira Gandhi's Twenty Point Programme and Sanjay Gandhi's Five Point Programme, and in return stay out of jail. 

To know more about this infamous letter and the role of Atal Bihari Vajpayee you have to read Mr. Subramanyam Swamy because most of the behind the scene happenings are completely erased from the public memory.

We took a train from Kanpur and first met poet Sumitranandan Pant. When we went at the Bank Road where Firaq had a beautiful but unkept bungalow we were told to come early next morning.

I was too young to understand the hour-long interview but I remember two scenes – first every time he was to light his cigarette, he just couldn’t hold the quilt properly and you could see that he was actually naked inside the quilt. 

And the second was when he was really furious after the question on secular word. His angry face, the appearance was something that you cannot forget all your life – the eyes, the cheeks and eyebrows altogether made sure that you must save yourself from the fury as he could do anything in those moments. 

Firaq hated the word secular. He was close to Nehru family but I remember he used a slew of abuses on the inclusion of this word in the constitution by the 42nd amendment enacted in 1976 by Indira Gandhi. His logic was we’re a secular state with deep secular values and we had been since ages. By the amendment the government has only made us aware, something that will divide the communities and will be bad for the future generation. He was right.

A Hindu Kayastha he wrote and even thought in Urdu. Contrary to the belief that it was people who gradually labelled Urdu as a language of Muslims it was in fact the ruling Congress Party and the government led by Nehru – Gandhi family which made sure that Urdu gets a bad name. Its policy was and is divide as much as possible. As long as the two communities will hate each other, their politics will succeed.

“Zubaan kisi qaum ki milkiyat Nahin

Jisne seekhi, usne kahi” 

(His logic was - language is not the prerogative of any particular society. A person who has learnt it, speaks it) 

Read here one of my favourites - 

किसी का यूँ तो हुआ कौन उम्र भर फिर भी 

ये हुस्न-ओ-इश्क़ तो धोका है सब मगर फिर भी 

हजार बार जमाना इधर से गुजरा है 

नई नई सी है कुछ तेरी रहगुज्जर फिर भी

झपक रही हैं जमान-ओ-मकाँ की भी आँखें 

मगर है क़ाफिला आमादा-ए-सफर फिर भी 

शब-ए- फ़िराक़ से आगे है आज मेरी नजर 

कि कट ही जाएगी ये शाम-ए-बे-सहर फिर भी 

-      रघुपति सहाय 'फ़िराक़' गोरखपुरी

(Who has ever been someone's for a lifetime, still

This beauty and love are all a deception, but still

The world has passed by here a thousand times

Your path is still new

The eyes of the world and the place are blinking

But the caravan is still determined to travel

Today my eyes are beyond the night of separation

Because the evening which wouldn’t be followed 

by a morning will pass anyway)

I was so fascinated that when I decided to get my collection of columns in Hindi to be published in a book form, I chose फिर भी (Still) because I believe in the philosophy the above lines want to convey. 

And some more – 

एक मुद्दत से तेरी याद भी आई न हमें
और हम भूल गए हों तुझे ऐसा भी नहीं
 
                        

ग़रज़ कि काट दिए ज़िंदगी के दिन ऐ दोस्त
वो तेरी याद में हों या तुझे भुलाने में
 

तबीअत अपनी घबराती है जब सुनसान रातों में
हम ऐसे में तेरी यादों की चादर तान लेते हैं