Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1885-1952) was born in the village of Metragam, Pulwama, Kashmir in a learned family. He started writing poetry first in Persian and then in Urdu. It is only in 1915 that his first love lyric in Kashmiri Vante hai vesy, made its appearance and he wrote subsequently only in his mother tongue, Kashmiri. He introduced a new style and a new thought into Kashmiri poetry. But for him, we would not be able to understand the modern age in Kashmiri literature.
Trilokinath Raina (b.1922) retired as Professor of English from the National Defence Academy. He has brought out two books of translations: An Anthology of Modern Kashmiri Verse (1972) and the Best of Mahjoor (1989). He also has a monograph on Dina Nath Nadim, and has edited an anthology, Mahjoor and after along with A History of Kashmiri Literature published by Sahitya Akademi, to his credit.
My acquaintance with Mahjoor started long ago, when his poems were available in the market as oven fresh bread, as soon as they were composed in sets of five or six, entitled Kalaam-i Mahjoor and sold for a paltry price of one anna. I was a regular buyer and preserved and bound them later in book form, before I ever visualized that the whole lot would be available one day as Kuliyaat-i-Mahjoor published by the Cultural Academy. My bound copy of these is a precious possession for me.
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