Celebrities on Tuesday expressed their grief and offered condolences to the family of the celebrated Urdu poet and lyricist Rahat Indori, who passed away at a hospital in Indore today.
The 70-year-old poet who died of heart attack after testing positive for coronavirus will be buried in Indore's Khajr cemetery, according to a posting put out by the Twitter handle of Indori.
Celebrities from the Indian music industry including senior lyricist Javed Akhtar, singer Mohit Chauhan, and musician Shankar Mahadevan took to Twitter to express grief over the demise of the acclaimed Urdu poet.
"Rahat Saheb's demise is an irreparable loss for contemporary Urdu poetry and our society at large. Like Habib Jalib he was from the fast-disappearing tribe of poets who are never short of courage to call a spade a spade," tweeted Javed Akhtar.
Singer, music composer and music director of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy fame, Shankar Mahadevan also condoled the demise of the lyricist and tweeted, "Really saddened after hearing that our dearest @rahatindori is no more. His poetry, his songs will live on forever !! Will miss you Rahat sahab."
Senior lyricist Swanand Kirkire also took to Twitter to quote a line from the song 'Dekh Le' penned by Indori to mourn his demise.
"Ab Rahat Saahab bhi?...Shayari ke jagat ki ek buland aawaaz, humaari maati ke sachhe RockStar..Indore se mere Agraz..Dr Rahat Indori saahab aap ki kami kaun bharega? Alvida mehboob Shayar," he tweeted.
"Munna Bhaai MBBD ke geet 'Dekh Le.." mein Rahat sahab likhte hain.. "jeevan hai barf ki naiyya...naiyya pighle haule haul chaahe hans ke chaahe ro le,"!! Naiya pighal gayi ayr sagar me vileen ho gayi..sirf alfaaz gunjte rahe #AlvidaRahatSahab," he added.
Singer Mohit Chauhan also tweeted to express grief over the demise of Rahat Indori.
"An immeasurable, irreparable loss. There will never be another like #RahatIndori sahab. Rahat sahab's passing away truly ends many an awesome chapters in Urdu poetry in India. May God Rest his soul in peace," he tweeted.
Indori had tested positive for coronavirus on Monday. The celebrated poet had this morning tweeted to share about his coronavirus diagnosis with his fans and had urged them to pray for his speedy recovery.
( With inputs from ANI )