Rais Amrohvi

Rais Amrohvi, born Syed Muhammad Mehdi in Amroha in 1914, was a Pakistani Urdu poet, scholar, journalist and psychoanalyst, and the elder brother of Jaun Elia. After migrating to Pakistan in 1947 he settled in Karachi, where for decades he wrote quatrains for the daily Jang, becoming famous for qata-nigari — the topical quatrain as a daily comment on politics, society and morals. He founded the Rais Academy for emotional and moral well-being and wrote widely on metaphysics, meditation and yoga, besides attempting an Urdu translation of the Bhagavad Gita. His books include Masnavi Lala-e-Sehra (1956), Pase Ghubar (1969), the Qattat volumes, Hikayaat (1975) and Aasaar (1985). His most famous poem, on the threatened fate of Urdu, opens "Urdu ka janaza hai zara dhoom se nikle." He was assassinated in Karachi on 22 September 1988.