SHAAM KO MAI SURAJ KI KHOJ MEIN NIKLA...AUR SURAJ MUJHE MIL GAYA By Ali Peter John

I had met Nida Faazli at a couple Kavi samelan and Mushayaras and we got along like friends, who knew each other for 100’s of years and we talked like teenagers about the most trivial and the most poetic and philosophical subjects in the same way - Ali Peter John

And we could travel to different places and spaces without any difficulty and without any hesitation about the mode of our travel, our only purpose was to reach our destiny which was to know more than what we had known before we started our talk.

We had reached a stage of our friendship when we didn't have to take any permission for anything and as early felt so lucky about anything in my life, knowing Nida Fazli was more than knowing the world for me and I knew how many learned people didn’t like me for what I felt about Nida Fazli...

It was the Screen awards and I was playing an active part in everything that was happening and there was a time when the jury of the award was discussing who to give the award for the best lyrics and I knew that Nida stood a very good chance of winning the award for his song “Gali mein aaj chand nikla” from the film Zakhm, directed by Mahesh Bhatt who was a very different Mahesh Bhatt from the Mahesh Bhatt he is today.

I was so sure that Nida Fazli would win the award that I even wished and prayed that he wins the award, but, I also knew that he would not try or do anything to make an effort to influence anyone anywhere to try and win the award.

I was so sure that he would win that I wanted to make sure that the very ziddi Nida Saab attend the awards function whether he would win the award or not and so I decided to go in search of his house one evening to try and pursued him to at least attend the award function.

I set out from my office when the sun had already set and followed the directions given to me by a close friend and reached danda, a village of fishermen with a very few buildings and some old bungalows.

I was told that Nida Saab lived in a building called ‘Amar’, but when I reached the fourth floor of Amar, where he lived, an old woman who was his neighbour told me that he and his family had just shifted to a new place in Versova called Yaari Road, I asked a woman if she knew exactly where he had shifted, she said something like “Sunraa”, and I left Amar in search of Sunraa.

The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presenting the Padma Shri Award Shri Nida Fazli, at an Investiture Ceremony-II, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on April 20, 2013.

It was after taking a train and travelling by bus and walking for almost an hour that I reached Yaari Road, and then kept asking people for a building called “Sunraa”, but no one had an idea of what I was saying and some young boys even asked me, “Kya piyelaa hai Kya Uncle?”.

I was almost about to give up my search for Sunraa, when a little girl asked me if I meant “Sunrise”, and I said yes, “it could be Sunrise” and she pointed out a new building opposite Madhuban, the bar where I used to drink everyday and when I reached the fourth floor where I was told a Urdu Poet had just shifted and his name was Nida Fazli.

I heaved a sigh of relief and before I could have another sigh I realised to my mighty relief and surprise that Sunrise was just behind my house, ‘Mom Apartments’.

Nida Saab showed his surprise at seeing me and instantly poured a large drink for me and for himself and asked me what had brought me to his new house.

I told him all about the Screen awards and how I was not only sure but believed that he would win the award, but he was very pessimistic about all awards and said that he would never attend any of this private awards even if I invited him.

I told him to come at the awards for my sake and he said that would be a challenge to his conscious, but he would still try.

The night of the awards came and the only man I kept waiting for was Nida Saab, and he didn’t come and when the award for Best lyricist was announced, it was for the song “Gali mein aaj chand nikla”, and the name of Nida Fazli was announced as the winner and as everyone clapped and applauded, I felt lost and terrible because I felt that I had lost the award and not Nida Saab, he could win many other and greater awards, but this was my only chance to make my best effort to see him win an award which I felt he truly deserved...

Our friendship however continued and the only time I kept away from him was when I felt I was too drunk after my visit to Madhuban, I still don’t know whether it was out of respect or out of some kind of fear which I still cannot describe.

It was one such evening when I came out drunk from Madhuban and I saw Nida Saab walking all alone with his hands behind his back and I wanted to meet him, but that thing called alcohol stopped me and the next morning my caretaker woke me up with the news that my friend Nida Fazli had died of a heart attack in his sleep...

And it was only after his death that I realised how much greater he was and I had known him to be, The sun still rises outside sunrise, but the sun's rays are not as bright as they were at the time of Nida Fazli.