ISLAMABAD Dr Wazir Agha, the founder of a new school of criticism in Urdu literature, is buried in his ancestral village Wazirkot, Sargodha Wednesday. He died Tuesday night after protracted illness. He was a trend-setter poet, critic and intellectual who have written more than 50 books. Some of them are Urdu Shairi Ka Mizaaj, Naey Maqlat, Urdu Adab Mein Tanz-o-Mazah, Tanqeed-o-Ehtasab, Tanqeed-o-Majli Tanqeed, Tanqeed aur Jadeed Urdu Tanqeed, Nazam-e-Jadeed ki Karwatain, Ghaas Mein Titlian (poetry), Khayal Paray (Inshaiye). He launched a literary magazine Auraq and edited it for decades. Auraq is considered as a trend-setter magazine in Urdu Literature. Born in 1922, Dr Wazir Agha introduced many theories in Urdu literature. He is most famous for his work on Urdu humour. He has also written a seminal book on modern Urdu poets, notably those who have written more poems than ghazals. He has also written poetry and his poems mostly have an element of story. Author of more than fifty books on criticism, poetry and other genres, Agha has lived life to the full. Cooped up in his room, he has been welcoming many a lover of literature who thronged his house from dawn to dusk even during his illness. When and how did he start writing? This question is well answered by Wazir Agha in his recently published interview. He says, I was studying at Government College Lahore when I fell in love with Urdu nazm. It fascinated me a lot in those days. I read poetry of Meera Jee, N M Rashid, Faiz, Majeed Amjad. I too started writing poetry. But I did not send these poems to any magazine. Later in 1944, I came across Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad who was the editor of famous magazine 'Adabi Duniya. His encouragement proved to be very beneficial for me and I started writing poetry with more zeal. In his early age, Dr Wazir Agha was inclined towards literature. But his father wanted him to study economics so he obtained a Masters degree in Economics. He was also interested in History, Psychology, and Philosophy. He had no concrete plans for his future. He only wanted to unravel the secrets of life, as he used to read a lot on cosmology. Wazir Agha was also the founder of Inshaiya who believed that there was absence of essayists in Urdu literature. But, on the other hand, he also differentiated this form of literature from the essay by saying Inshaiya as a light essay. He has mentioned that it was Qayyum Nazar who told him that there was no tradition of light essays in Urdu. Agha always gave credit to Qayyum Nazar for asking him to try to write some light essays for reference to other writers. Whatever he contributed or introduced is beacon for the writers and poets who believed his ideas and philosophy of life and literature.