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Today's ghazal has been sung by Chitra Singh (The Gold Disc), as well as 
by Ghulam Ali (Golden Collection). A brief biographical sketch of the poet 
follows the ghazal.


kiyaa hai pyaar jise hamane zi.ndagii kii tarah
vo aashanaa bhii milaa hamase ajanabii kii tarah

ba.Daa ke pyaas merii us ne haath chho.D diyaa
vo kar rahaa thaa muravvat bhii dillagii kii tarah

kise Khabar thii ba.Degii kuchh aur taariikii
chhupegaa vo kisii badalii me.n chaa.Ndanii kii tarah

kabhii na sochaa thaa hamane "Qateel" us ke liye
karegaa ham pe sitam vo bhii har kisii kii tarah


Qateel Shifai was born on 24th December, 1919. His actual name is Aurangzeb 
Khan. Qateel Shifai is his nom de plume, the pen-name under which he is known 
in the world of Urdu poetry. "Qateel" is his "takhallus" and "Shifai" is in honour 
of his ustaad Hakim Mohammed 'Shifa' whom he considered his mentor.

His father's death at an early age, forced Qateel to quit education and start his 
own sporting goods shop. Success eluded him and he moved to Rawalpindi, 
where he worked at a transport company for a monthly salary of Rs.60. Finally in 
1946, Nazir Ahmed called him to Lahore and made him the assistant editor of 
the monthly 'Adab-e-Latif'.

Qayeel Shifai's first ghazal was printed in the Lahore weekly 'Star', whose editor 
was Qamar Jalalabadi. In January 1947, a Lahore based film producer asked 
Qateel to pen the songs for his forthcoming film. His first film as a lyricist was 
"Teri Yaad". Since then he has won numerous awards as a lyricist. He has had 
quite a few of his poem collections published, one of which being "Mutriba" 
which was awarded the highest literature award in Pakistan.

Qateel's primary contribution to Urdu poetry has been to raise the standards of 
ghazals in films. Though this work was started by Tanvir Alvi and Sahir Ludhianvi, 
it has been brought to its natural conclusion by Qateel Shifai. His work brought 
a certain standard to ghazals in films and gave it a certain respectability. His work 
also brought Urdu poetry closer to the masses by using simple words, quite often 
words taken from Hindi.

Qateel Shifai has also been known for his collaborations with Jagjit and Chitra 
Singh. "The Gold Disc" and "Milestone" are two albums of the husband and 
wife duo in which ALL the ghazals are penned by Qateel Shifai. His ghazals can 
be found in their other albums too.