Bekal Utsahi was a popular poet who made extensive use of Awadhi language in his shayari. He was born Mohd. Shafi Khan in Balrampur of district Gonda on June 1, 1930. His father's name was Lodhi Mohammad Jafar Khan. Bekal was given the pseudonym Utsahi by Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. This happened during an election programme of the Congress party in Gonda, in which Bekal Warsi welcomed Pandit Nehru by narrating the poetry "Kisan Bharat Ka". Nehru was awestruck and said,"Yeh hamara utsahi shayar hai".  Since that day, he came to be known as Bekal Utsahi in the literary world. His most famous nazm is 'Ai Meri Jan-e-ghazal….'. Bekal was a member of Rajya Sabha at one point of time. In 1976, he was awarded the Padmashree in the field of literature. He passes away on 2nd December 2016.