Page 2 - LN- Ghat of the Only World

buckled after only a few steps. The hospital orderly was summoned again with the
wheelchair.

Cheers on the face of adversity

Shahid loved company, partying and shared meals. He didn’t have time to be depressed. His
apartment was on the seventh floor. But it was worth going all the way up. There was the
fragrance of Rogan josh and songs to welcome the visitor. Shahid would open the door and
clap his hands joyously. There were poets, students, writers and relatives in the house. Even
though his health was failing, he loved to talk, laugh, eat and, of course, enjoy poetry. His
deep interest in kitchen matched with his skill as a poet. James Merrill had great influence
on his poetry. He dreamt that he was at the ghat of the only world.

A patriot-poet

Shahid was not a fanatic. He regretted that Pandits had left Kashmir, and he expressed that
feeling in his poetry. He loved Bengali food also. He loved the poetry of Begum Akhtar. His
repartees were equally sharp. Once at Barcelona airport, the security guard, a woman, asked
him what he did. His answer was he was a poet and his vocation was to write poetry. Finally,

that woman asked if he was carrying anything that could be dangerous to the other
passengers, Shahid cried ‘only my heart.’

An inspiration for students

He was very popular as a teacher. He taught at several colleges and universities. He was

appointed a professor in 1999, and he had his first blackout in Feb. 2000. After 1975, Shahid
lived mainly in America where he joined his brother and two sisters. His parents continued
to live in Srinagar. The political violence in Kashmir had a great effect on him. But he was not
a political poet. He was true to his art form of language. His vision was all-embracing. He had
a secular outlook. In his childhood, he once created a small Hindu temple in his room in
Srinagar. His parents never stood in his way.

His peace with Death

On 4th May, he had gone to the hospital for a test to discover whether the course of
chemotherapy had the desired effect or not. The next day he told the author that the
doctors were going to stop all his medicines and there was not much hope. He wanted to go
back to Kashmir to die, to be with his father. But for certain reasons, he changed his mind.
He died in the US and he was laid to rest in Northampton. He died peacefully in his sleep at 2
p.m. on 8th December