Urdu doyen Firaq Gorakhpuri's maverick bohemian life

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'Firaq' - one of the greatest names in Urdu literature in India - once admonished a stray dog who happened to be sleeping on a sofa at his Bank Road house in Allahabad when a friend came visiting.
"Ghar mein mehmaan aaye hain aur aap so rahe hain! Jaaiye andar jaake let jaaiye." (A guest has come to the house and look at you, sunk in slothful slumber/ Take yourself inside and lie down there.)
The friend, like others who heard this tale, was left amused at the way the literary stalwart - known for his eccentricities and bohemian nature -- reacted on seeing the canine up on his couch.

Born on August 28, 1896, Raghupati Sahai 'Firaq Gorakhpuri' was also one of the most colourful men to have walked through the portals of Allahabad University - both as a student as well as a teacher - a character of rare and scathing repartee, with enormous potential to shock and awe middle-class morality, according to a new Rupa Publications book "Three Rivers and a Tree - the story of Allahabad University".
Born in Gorapkhpur to Munshi Gorakh Prasad, Firaq's mother was third of his wives, the other two having passed away. He was one of the eight siblings, five brothers and three sisters.

After passing out of the Gorakhpur Government Jubilee High School in 1913, he joined the Muir Central College in Allahabad, for an MA and later was selected for the Indian Civil Services.

The known maverick, chose to quit the government service and plunged into the national movement, that landed him serving an 18-month jail sentence in 1920.
Thereafter an old acquaintance of his - Jawaharlal Nehru - got him into the All India Congress Committee as its inter-secretary on a salary of Rs 250 a month and where he worked from 1923 to 1928.
In 1930 Firaq was appointed a lecturer in the Allahabad University's English Department where he continued till his retirement in 1958.

His presence has been described by one of his colleagues - Harivansh Rai Bachchan - as "the most colourful" in that department.
Firaq Saheb's bohemian life has come in for much storytelling, as has is off beat appearance: hair disheveled, a cigarette in one hand a stick in the other, an unbuttoned sherwani, lose pajamas with long, dangling drawstring, smouldering eyes and wild look.
He was fond of country liquor, which he poured out of a spouted vessel and it was the same man who in 1961 was given the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book "Gul-e-Nagma" and was made professor emeritus till 1962. In 1967 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, in 1968 the Soviet Land Nehru award and in 1970 the Jnanpith award.