1.7

she was born mahjabeen bano in bombay. her father ali bakhsh was an actor in films and parsee theatre, apart from composing music for a few films. her mother prabhawati (later iqbal begam), a stage dancer and actress, was a descendant of the tagore family. mahajabeen acted in her first film at the age of six. she took on the name meena kumari for vijay bhatt's immensely popular musical baiju bawra.on her death, she bequeathed 250 diaries of her nazms, ghazals and ashaar to gulzar. some of her ghazals and nazms were released in an album titled "i write, i recite" ("mere nazm, meri zabani" in hindi) by gulzar with her takhallus ‘naaz’.


aaGaaz to hotaa hai anjaam nahii.n hotaa
jab merii kahaanii me.n vo naam nahii.n hotaa


jab zulf kii kaalikh me.n ghul jaaye ko_ii rahii
bad_naam sahii lekin gum_naam nahii.n hotaa


ha.Ns ha.Ns ke javaa.N dil ke ham kyo.n na chune.n Tuka.De
har shaKhs kii qismat me.n inaam nahiin hotaa

bahate hue aa.Nsuu ne aa.Nkho.n se kahaa tham kar
jo mai se pighal jaaye vo jaam nahii.n hotaa

din Duube hai.n yaa Duubii baaraat liye kashtii
saahil pe magar ko_ii koharaam nahiin hotaa