Maasoom Shah was born in the city of poets and writers, Ludhiana, named after Sikandar Lodhi, in the time of Lodhi dynasty which ruled in Delhi from 1451-1526 A.D. Great Urdu and Punjabi poets and writers such as Sahir Ludhianvi, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Saadat Hassan Manto, Gulzar Singh Sandhu, M. Habib ur Rahman Ludhianvi, and Barkat Ali Ludhianvi lived here, were born here, or tasted first publishing success here. Maasoom Shah (born as Sachdeva, Manav) started writing Urdu poetry at the age of fifteen. Since the age of fifteen, he started traveling and working and studying all over the world. He has traveled to nearly 50 countries, dropped out of pre-medical studies in California, studied comparative literature, international politics, and languages, at Harvard and Columbia Universities, and knows Farsi (Persian), Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, English, Russian, French, and some Arabic, and Spanish. His first book of poetry was published in 2011 and was called The Sufi’s Garland. His next book, a collection of urdu poems called Siyaah Shaam Ka Ikhtetaam (The End of a Dark, Dark Evening) is expected shortly.

Masoom Shah Aliyaar (also known as Manav Sachdeva Maasoom ) was awarded the prestigious Luce Foundation Poet Laureate Award at the United Nations for the year 2015. Published his first poetry book, The Sufi’s Garland, by Roman Books Kolkata in 2011. Studied Poetry and Policy Studies in Master’s at Columbia University, and Harvard University Olympia Program in Comparative Literature, Society, and Culture through a full Kokallis Foundation Scholarship. Grew up in Ludhiana, Punjab, India till fifteen, went to high school and undergraduate in California, dropped out of seven year UCR-UCLA Biomed program for the love of poetry writing and social reform as a shock decision for a scion of doctors, pursued love of literature and languages through an arduous journey at various universities and through various loans and scholarships (Ann Arbor—University of Michigan, Madison—University of Wisconsin, GWU) until reaching Columbia. Performed in New York with Bollywood greats and other poets from India during Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit as a poet , and with Geeta Citygirl in Salaam Theatre performances. Performed all across New York from Bowery Poetry Club, Columbia University, West Bank Books, Zara Club, Brecht Forum, post 9/11 sit-ins etc. Learned several languages along the way and in the last fifteen years including Russian, Farsi/Dari (Persian), Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, French, and English. Traveled and spent a lot of time in India over the years as also in many parts of the world through social reform and women’s rights work (NY Times covered attempts at opening an international poetry café in Afghanistan. Most recently selected as a poet panelist during Aroon Shivdasani’s first ever NY Indian Literary Festival in 2014 where he got to read and spend time with great luminaries such as Rushdie, Ayad Akhtar, Ravi Shankar, others…