Describing his childhood days and memories of his carefree period of his early life, Hari writes about Plague, a contagious disease in 1929, which claimed a large number of victims. As a thirteen year old boy, he watched the dead bodies of victims being carried by their relation and friends on a pyre bier on the shoulders. Chanting ‘Ram Ram Sang Hai’ in a grief stricken faint voice. It was a touching scene that moved him a lot.

Hari’s house was adjacent to Swami Achal Prasad’s Tikana (temple). His father Diwan Gurdinomal was a first class Resident Magistrate in Rohri where he lived all alone, away from his family in Larkana. Fearing the threat to life due to infectious disease the family decided to shift to Rohri so that all members could be together, at a safer place, family started rail journey in the morning reached Rohri at noon time. At Rohiri it was a rented house and was located in a paved lane near Lansdowne Bridge on Sindhu River. Hari was fascinated by the rhythmic flow of the mighty river which, to him, was like a sweet music to his ears. He made it a habit to go and sit on the banks of the river to enjoy it. There, he used to watch a saintly soul sitting quietly in meditation and solitude. Much later, he came to know that the saintly figure was none other than Baba Nebhraj the holy man, who was known throughout Sindh as a Saint. In Rohri, Hari had a chance to listen to soul stirring voice of Bhagat Kanwar Ram in the Tikana (temple) of Saint Wasan Shah, for the first time. Kanwar’s bhajans and

Sufi Kalaams kept the audience spellbound from late evening till early morning next day. At the end, Bhagat Kanwar Ram used to spread Jholi to collect the alms from public for distribution among the poor, needy forlorn Faqirs and beggars, without any discrimination of caste, colour and creed. He, himself would leave the gathering empty handed. It was a unique scene unknown to Hari. In Rohri , Hari also visited Dargah of Bedil an Bekas; a father , son due, who were mystics and saints of high level and well-known Sufi poets. Hari’s parents were staunch followers of Rohal Faqir of Kandri Sharif a village at a distance of about ten miles from Rohri. They had utmost faith in Faqir Ghullan Ali, the Gadinashin (successor) of Rohal, whose poetry had a Vedic flavour.

After education matriculation examination of University of Bombay Hari found himself in completely different environments, when he entered D.J. Sindh College, Karachi the first premier collegiate institution, for further education. He intended to postgraduate in English and had an ambition to become Professor of English. But that was perhaps not to be, as his father was advised by his Murshid (Spiritual Guru) to send Hari to study Civil Engineering. As Hari’s keen inclination was towards literature, he felt extremely disturbed and disappointed, because his father Murshid’s advice was a law, which he did not want to break. Hari was brought to the Murshid’s ‘court’ to plead his case and express his uneasiness. To his surprise, when he faced his Murshid, he melted like a candle wax and hanged his head in total submission.

Thus he joined science stream as suggested by his father and Guru. He pursued and passed B Sc and joined second year engineering.

While still in his college, he married Naniki Hingorani on 2nd June 1939 and in 1942, he cleared Bachelor of Engineering (Civil). His interest in literature however, continued.

In 1930, he came in contact with Bewas a teacher in a Primary School in Larkana. Bewas was known to be a trend setter in the area of Sindhi poetry, far detached from the dominant influence of Persian poetry. Bewas chose simple words to express thought in his poetry. As a person, he was full of warmth, elevating softness and kindness for everyone who came in his contact.

Another prominent poet of Larkana was Nawaz Ali Jafri Niyaz, who was known as master poet and exponent in of Persian prosody in Sindhi. He was looked upon with great respect not only in Larkana but all over Sindh. He presided over poetic gatherings (Mushairas). His language was flowery and rather difficult to understand. Hari presented a few of his compositions to him and sought his advice and guidance. Niyaz Sahib commented that thought Hari wrote well, yet was unaware of rules of prosody and its intricacies. He offered to be his guide. Accompanied by his friend and maternal cousin Prabha Wafa, Hari went to Niyaz Saheb the next day with some sweets and sugar candy (Misri) as it was customary gesture to a Guru. Niyaz gladly accepted him as his disciple.

In those days “Sindhu” was a monthly magazine which was being patronized as a periodical by the people of high literary taste. Hari started contributing to that magazine. A few poems published in Sindhu ware enough to establish him as a poet. His poem entitled ‘Sono Sapnan jo Sansar’ (Golden World of Dreams) brought him, prominence, so much so that he was entrusted with the task of editing the poetry section of the magazine. He started enjoying the verses of Tagore, Khalil Jibran , Walt Whitman, Mayakovski and of course “Bewas” .

From the very beginning Hari gave importance to the thought, rather than to rules of prosody, although his poetry lies within the confines of Bahar (metre), Vazan (metre), Kafiya (rhyme) and Radif (Double rhyme) and he saw to it that these important elements were not sacrificed.

During the course of an interview later, when Hari’s attention was drawn to the facts of his poetry as to how he chose his Takhalus (penname) ‘Dilgir’, he said that it was the trend of the times, when poets used to choose these pennames showing helplessness, sadness, pessimism, such as Bewas, Dukhayal, Ranjayal, Sikayal, Gharib etc, he could not go against the trend and he remained Dilgir though he always wrote poems showing hope, optimism and future.

1) He is Naturalness, Spontaneous flow of his expression flight of thought and depth of meaning in simple and sweet words.
2) He is Righteous indignation for tyrants and perpetrators of injustice towards anyone, anywhere in the world.
3) He is an ardent advocate of women’s emancipation.
4) He writes about social problems and portrays the realities, frustrations, hopes and joys of the human mind.
5) Optimism : About optimism Dilgir says he initially imbibed it from his mentor Bewas and subsequently from Tagore and Upanishands.
6) Sympathy :He reserves utmost sympathy for all beings. He loves all human beings irrespective of caste, colour, creed, religion and race.
7) Dilgir has written copiously on nature, and is known as the wordsworth of Sindhi literature.
8) He is an important poet of children’s verse and he loves tiny tots.

Mauj Kaee Mehran 1966
Pal Pal Jo Parlau 1977
Amar Geet 1981
Mazedaar Geet 1983
Cholo Munhijo Chika Mein 1987
Subah Jo Suhaag 2001