Om Krishan Rahat a great classical poet of his time passed away in Sydney. Om Krishan Rahat was one of the great classical Urdu Poet, well known and recognised by wider URDU community of Indian sub-continent. He was born in Ludhiana, North Indian State of Punjab and spent most of his life in Faridabad before migrating to Australia. After living a successful life, he sadly passed away on the 13th of September 2018. Rahat Saheb was living in Sydney for decades and his demise is a great loss for Urdu literature in Australia and among Urdu lovers of Indian sub-continent. It is also an irrecoverable loss for the Urdu speaking community who loves his classical poetry. He was always applauded, acknowledged and appreciated in every literary gathering for his unique style of poetry recitation all over Australia. I cannot remember any Mushaera ever held without his presence. Almost all MUSHAERA was chaired by him.

Rahat Saheb wrote Poetry, short stories and one-act plays in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. He has his first ever anthropology of Urdu Poetry published when he was merely 13 years old. Since then he had published Books in Urdu Poetry and Short stories. Few of his Books which were published on REKHTA.COM are Karb-i imroz; Bansi Hont; Kahi Unkahi; Shafaq Zaar.

His works were always recognised, acknowledged and received many awards such as The Rajendra Singh Bedi Award, The Khawaja Ahmad Abbas Award and The Nishan-E-Urdu Award. Rahat Saheb had also been awarded Urdu Academies of UP, Haryana, Punjab and West Bengal.

Om Krishan Rahat Saheb will be regarded as one of the best classical Urdu Ghazal poets in Australia and among poets of Indian sub-continent. He was master of unique, simple and very mesmerising delivery of his poetry in Mushaera. One of his famous couplets is a proof of a distinguished style of poetry:

“Yaa Tau Mujh Se Chean Le yeh buut tarashee Ka Hunar”

“Werna MaiN jo buut tarashooNga Khuda ho jayega”

Om Krishan Rahat Saheb was a poet of feelings, whatever he wrote it comes straight from his heart and thought. He wrote and expressed about hardship, sufferings, experiences and struggle of life in his POETRY. He had literary aptness and correctness which ranked him as one of the USTAD (Master) poet among poets of sub-continent. Renowned poets of Sydney from young generation who are known for their fine URDU poetry like Mr Arshad Saeed, Mr Saeed Khan, Mr Naseem Haider and Mr Athar Khan were lucky to have Rahat Saheb as their USTAD. These poets were groomed, coached and rectified by Rahat Saheb after critical analysis of their poetry composition. Young poets learnt a lot under his guidance and supervision. He was very vocal, strict and straightforward when it comes to the grammar, parameter, thyme, balance and BEHR during the composition of URDU poetry.

No doubt Rahat Saheb’s contribution towards Urdu literature is larger than life and all poets especially youngs in Sydney regarded him as an USTAD poet. Rahat Saheb was a great source of inspiration and always encouraged young poets to achieve excellence.

Rahat Sahib’s Ghazal “Aati Hai Apne Shaher Ki “ was composed by Mr. Abbas Raza Alvi a well known creative artist, composer and community face, for Dooriyan CD. Ghazal was sung by Pupinder Mintu and Pushpa Jagadish. Dooriyan CD was donated to AMU Alumni to generate fund for Scholarships to most deserving and disadvantaged Students of AMU-Aligharh Muslim University, India. Dooriyan was launched in the year 2000 during Sydney Olympic in Australia . Dooriyan was also placed and played on Air India flights.

Rahat Saheb is gone but his legacy will still live on along with his poetry, short stories and one-act plays.