New Delhi, April 25 -- Tank aage badhe ke peeche hate,

Kokh dharti ki baanjh hoti hai;

Fateh ka jashn ho ke haar ka soug,

Zindagi maiyaton pe roti hai.

(Whether tanks advance or retreat,

The womb of the earth is left barren;

Be it the celebration of victory or the mourning of defeat,

Life weeps over the dead).

- Sahir Ludhianvi, Aye Shareef Insano (1965)

"Ishq, Siyasat aur Awam (Love, Politics, People): Why Peace Matters," a national convention marking the 30th anniversary of the Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, held in New Delhi paid homage to the lives and work of the well-known subcontinental poets Sahir Ludhianvi, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and Avtar Singh Sandhu (Pash), who consistently wrote about the imp...