India, May 29 -- Bashir Badr, the much-feted and beloved Urdu poet with an immense mass following, passed away on Thursday. He was 91 and ailing from dementia and other age-related issues.

Born on February 15, 1935, in what was then the United Province in pre-independent India, Badr was a keen student of the ghazal. Like his contemporary, Nasir Kazmi (older to Badr by a decade), Badr used everyday language to great effect, ensuring that his verses spoke directly to the listener.

An alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University, Badr authored several books of ghazals, literary criticism of the form, and taught at Meerut University for several years.

Such was his popularity that in 1972, the then President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto quoted h...