His profession may lend him a rough and tough image but there is a soft side to this cop. When Quiser Khalid,Deputy Commissioner (Port Zone),is not dealing with Somalian pirates or ship collisions off Mumbai coast,he spends his time with poetry. Policing is my duty but underneath my khaki uniform I have a heart of a shayar and poetry is my passion, says Khalid. A 1997 batch IPS officer,Khalid has recited poetry at many mushayraas and has received praise from literature scholars. He attended a mushayeraa 15 days ago in Malad where he recited his collection of poetry on Unity. Khalid grew up in a small town in Bihar with closely-knit villages. After the 1980s,however,there was massive migration from the small towns which created deserted villages and broken relationships,he recalls. This shift was an eye opener for blend with the culture shock that I experienced after moving to Mumbai, says Khalid. Literature is nothing but how one perceives and expresses social situations, he says. A person who has the understanding of human nature and the world would not have a problem expressing his emotions and the situations he has been through,this is gist of poetry, Khalid says. He also wants to change the image of a conventional shayar. The image of a conventional shayar is somebody with broken heart but I want to change this perception. I write about modern topics. I wrote a poem on the standard of justice in the backdrop of capital punishment handed out to assassins in Bangladesh after 35 years. I also wrote a few verses on pain and the reasons we feel pain, says Khalid. When asked how he makes time to write,Khalid says a person can think of a verse anytime he thought of one in a gym. Khalid says he was scared during his first recitation but after that he became comfortable with them. In 2006 I edited the poetry collection of Shad Azimabadi that is taught in post graduation, Khalid says. With a compilation of more than 150 poems,Khalid now wants to publish a book by the end of the year and continue writing after he retires from the police force.
