Khalid Saeed — A scholar and poet who helped me embark on my Urdu journey

Another Light is Gone Professor Khalid Saeed’s life has been one of fluctuations. Yet after certain life-altering experiences he managed to further contribute to his craft as a poet, a scholar of substance, and duty towards his students whose minds he molded. On Monday, May 26, news of his death made its way through many Urdu circles nationwide.
A good friend of my father from his Engineering college days in Gulbarga, I was told that he always had a flair for poetry and literature. Everyone in this group of friends would ask him as to why he was pursuing a degree that didn’t do justice to his poetic, literary temperament.
Saeed followed his heart and in doing so he left behind quite a legacy.
He first began writing prose but when tragedy struck in the form of his sister’s death, he instead took to poetry for creative expression. After serving as an Urdu lecturer in Bidar for 24 years, he then transplanted himself to Hyderabad where he flourished as a Professor at MANUU.
The Urdu department there wouldn’t have been what it is today without him.
Tajamul Islam, a former PhD student at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), where Saeed taught for 12 years, had interacted with him as he was pursuing his PhD in English.