Mirza Ghalib remembered on his birth anniversary

LAHORE (92 News) – Renowned poet Mirza Ghalib was remembered on his 222nd birth anniversary today (Friday). Mirza Ghalib ‘the last great poet of the Mughal Era’ is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib was born on December 27, 1797 in Agra, which is now part of India, while he died on February 15, 1869 in Delhi. Mirza Ghalib is considered to be the most dominating poet of the Urdu language. He was one of the best of Urdu poets who led a drastic revolution in Urdu poetry with his words. Ghalib felt so much proud of his Persian poetry but his Urdu poetry like “Ghazals” are also much famous today. Ghalib started composing poetry at the age of 11. His first language was Urdu, but Persian and Turkish were also spoken at home. He got his education in Persian and Arabic at a young age. Ghalib’s poetry is characterised by a lingering sadness borne of a tumultuous and often tragic life — from being orphaned at an early age, to losing all of his seven children in their infancy, to the political upheaval that surrounded the fall of Mughal rule in India. He struggled financially, never holding a regular paying job but instead depending on patronage from royalty and more affluent friends. He once wrote there was only one pain greater than marriage, the pain of life itself. Ghalib remains a symbol of pluralism and all universally agree that he was not just a poet of yore but a magician who weaved such magic with his words that they still haunt and cushion you simultaneously in trying times. Ghalib’s love for words always transformed into magic on paper. During the days of Gadar when the British treated Muslims with suspicion and the city of Delhi was being emptied of Muslims. Ghalib did not leave the place in those days. Some Firangi took him in front of the colonel. On seeing his dress, the colonel asked if you were a Muslim! Ghalib said, half. He asked what half. The answer was that I drink alcohol but do not eat pig. Hearing this, the colonel could not stop laughing and left Ghalib. In fact, Ghalib witnessed conflict since childhood and did not recover from the struggle. Infamous for being an alcoholic, a gambler and a social outcast, his contemporaries would always look down on him. In fact, Ghalib was twice arrested for gambling. Incidentally, the first and second editions of his ‘Deewan’ were published in the same years when he was arrested. This never deterred his confidence, and why should it, for Mirza had a league of his own. Many people then, and many of us even now denounce Mirza Ghalib as a drunken reprobate, a gambler and some would even go on to call him a womanizer and an atheist. But how many of us are aware of the other side of his personality? On his 222nd birth anniversary, people took to social media paying tributes to the man of words sharing his poems and couplets. Here are six famous Ghalib’s couplets that cut through the coldest of winters. Gifted naturally with the talent of letter writing, Mirza Ghalib and his poems have stood the test of time and are still relevant and highly popular today. Every couplet, every poem, and every song has a deeper meaning attached to it which needs contemplation and deep observation to be understood fully. Mirza Ghalib might not have achieved the fame and glory that he deserved during his lifetime but he has become immortal because of his poems and writings. He passed away in Delhi on February 15, 1869. The house where he lived in Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, in Old Delhi, known as the Ghalib ki Haveli, has now been turned into ‘Ghalib Memorial’ and houses a permanent Ghalib exhibition. His wife died on the same date as he died, a year later.