Among the young and passion-filled minds [S.D. Burman] came into contact with was a young poet. Abdul Hayee, new to the city, trying to find his space in the writing world that yet ignored him despite his success at a Progressive Writers’ Conference in 1949, where he had met luminiaries like Ismat Chughtai and Jan Nisar Akhtar. Prem Dhawan, who had befriended him, tried to help him by sending his poems to significant members of the film fraternity.