Pandit Mela Ram, a noted poet, novelist, and journalist, was the son of Pandit Bhagat Ram and grandson of Pandit Jai Das, he was given the title of Raj-Kavi by the government of Punjab and became famous as Mela Ram Vafaa. Born on 26th January 1895 in village Dipoke, Sialkot district, Punjab, he used to graze cattle in his village during his childhood. He was the editor of several newspapers and taught Urdu and Persian at the National College, Lahore. He was also sentenced to two years in prison for writing a rebellious poem, ‘Aye Farangi’. Apart from his two poetry collections, namely ‘Soz-e-Watan’ and ‘Sang-e-Mil’, his novel ‘Chand Ka Safar’, is counted among his important books. His elder brother Sant Ram was a poet too and wrote under the pen name ‘Shauq’. T.R. Raina’s book ‘Pandit Mela Ram Vafa: Hayat-o-Khidmat’, published from the Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (India), in 2011. He also wrote songs for films such as Pagli(1943) and Agni(1945). He got married at the age of 12 and started writing poetry at 17, under the tutelage of Pandit Raj Narayan Arman Dehlvi. Arman, who was Dagh Dehlvi’s disciple, was the editor of the famous Urdu magazine ‘Makhzan’, he also edited Lala Lajpat Rai’s Urdu newspaper ‘Vande Matram’. He also worked in Madan Mohan Malviya’s newspapers and wrote a column named ‘Jang Ka Rang’ in the paper ‘Veer Bharat’. He passed away on September 19, 1980, in Jalandhar, Punjab.