Why did lyricist Manoj Muntashir of Galliyan Teri Galliyan (Ek Villain (2014)) fame replace his original surname ‘Shukla’ with ‘Muntashir’? And if, like many a famous poet before him, Manoj has chosen a nom-de-plume, how did he hit upon this particular name?
Manoj, whose song Le Chala (One Night Stand) is currently climbing the popularity charts, laughs, “Muntashir is my pen name. How I adopted it is an interesting story. Being a poet, I needed a takhallus (pen name), but was not happy with the most popular and oft-used ones like ‘Saghar’ or ‘Sahir’. So when I was in Class 10, I started hunting for a unique pen name. One evening, while I was walking down my sleepy hometown of Amethi, I overheard a couplet playing on a radio set at a tea stall: Muntashir hum hain to rukhsaar pe shabnam kyun hai, Aaine toot-te rahte hain tumhe gham kyun hai. I just loved the word ‘muntashir’, which meant ‘scattered’.” In a split second, Manoj’s journey from ‘Shukla’ to ‘Muntashir’ was complete. He says, “The best part is that I am the only Muntashir who has ever existed in the world of poetry. So till date, my pen name stands unique.”