New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): Suhaib Ahmed Farooqui is a policeman by profession but a poet by heart. For the last 10 years, Farooqui has not only fulfilling his duties responsibly but also following his passion. Currently he is stationed as Station House Office (SHO) at South Avenue police station here.

Despite being an SHO, he attends the various poetic symposia (mushaira) across the country.

His poems are so good that even criminals, after completing their sentence, came to meet him. Suhaib told IANS, "We nabbed some criminals two months ago. They were released on bail after 15-20 days. But instead of going to their homes, they came to meet me first as they liked my habits and language."

Born in 1969 in Etawah (UP), Farooqui could not study at one place as his father was a junior engineer in the irrigation department. He did his schooling from Etah in UP and Dehradun in Uttarakhand. In addition to college education from Hindu College in Moradabad, he also learnt Urdu.

After coming to Delhi in 1993, he became a teacher in the primary school of the Municipal Corporation and in 1995 was appointed as Sub-Inspector with the Delhi Police.

Since, Urdu was the primary language in his house, he was already well-versed in it. He even did Bachelors of Arts (BA) in Urdu from Jamia Urdu Board but couldn't devote time to the language because of his police duties.

Farooqui started writing at the age of 40 and got recognition due to social media.

He said, "The social media brought a significant change in my life. I started from Orkut but Facebook brought a revolution in my life. You can post anything on it without any approval from the editor."

"I was promoted in 2010 as Inspector. In 2015, I was posted as Additional SHO at Jamia Nagar. Being in the vicinity of Jamia Millia Islamia, I learnt a lot from there too. I met a lot of people who were experts in Urdu which helped me in improving my language. I even attended several poetic symposia, where I met late celebrated poet Rahat Indori, from whom I learnt a lot," he said.

Farooqui said that being in the police, it is sometimes difficult to have control on your language as poetry and police duty both are completely different. He said, "A lot of time, I had to remind myself about my role i.e. whether I am on my duty or in a mushaira."

"The use of Hindi at Urdu mushairas and the use of Urdu words in Hindi mushairas is very strange for listeners. Quite a few times, people had to be informed that please forgive him as he is from the police department."

Sometimes people even taunted Farooqui as they felt that being a policeman he was given preference over other poets but after listening to him they applauded his craft. "Among those who appreciated and commented on my poetry were Rahat Indori Saheb."

Several times it has happened that Farooqui got calls from his seniors during the mushaira due to which he forgot his poetry. He believes that no matter how capable a poet you are, if you are not a performer, it is useless.

Farooqui further said, "One of my poems 'Corona se jang' became quite famous during the pandemic. My department also respects me and sees me like a poet. Literature keeps me relaxed."

One of his poems goes:

Nafrat tumhein itni hi ujalon se agar hai

Sooraj ko bhi foonkon se bujha kyon nahi dete (If you hate lights so much, why don't you extinguish the sun as well?)

Sholon ki lapat aa gai kya aapke ghar tak,

Ab kya hua sholon ko hawa kyon nahi dete (The fire of flames has now reached your home, why don't you fan the flames now?)

Ab itni khamoshi bhi Suhaib achchi nahi hai

Ehbab ko aaina dikha kyon nahi dete (Too much silence can't be a good thing, Suhaib, why don't you tell the truth to your beloved?)