Hilal Fareed

Hilal Fareed (HF) is an Orthopaedic Surgeon and Urdu Poet based in London. He was born in Lucknow and brought up in Aligarh. He is an alumnus of Our Lady of Fatima Convent School and Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. After obtaining an MS in Orthopaedic Surgery from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Aligarh, HF moved to the UK for further training. He obtained the Mch Orth degree from the University of Liverpool and passed Edinburgh's Intercollegiate Speciality Examination in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and works as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon both in the NHS and in the Private Sector. His specialist interests include knee and hip joint replacement surgery and arthroscopic knee surgery.

HF has been writing poetry in Urdu for over 45 years. Though he experiments in various poetic forms, his main genre is ghazal. His collection of poems Jab Diyon Ke Sar Uthe (When The Lamps Lightened Up), published in 2011, was received well by both Urdu and Hindi poetry lovers; a second edition of this collection was published recently in 2022 by Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind). A selection of his poems Pyar Ki Boli Bol (Speak The Language Of Love) published in Devanagari script in 2021 by Vani Prakashan Delhi, has attracted some interesting critical reviews. A new collection of his poems Ye To Hai Ishq Ka Muamla is with the publishers.

HF's experience in theatre & drama includes key roles in plays like Shatranj ke Mohray (Urdu), Juloos (Hindi), and The Dreams of Tipu Sultan (English). HF’s PowerPoint presentations on literary and political figures of Indo-Islamic culture have been popular with the South Asian community in Britain. HF runs a charity called Roshni for Harmony and a 'not-for-profit' organisation called Urdu Culture Limited (previously known as the Sir Syed Foundation London).