Revisiting Ghalib

Interestingly, the authors are able to show that even in couplets that seem to be only about love, Ghalib often conveys a far deeper meaning, that may be extended to ideas well beyond love.

Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan ‘Ghalib’ (1797-1869) probably ranks right up there as India’s most popular poet of Hindustani. Reams have been written about Ghalib; he is famed in anecdote and verse; he has been immortalised on cinema and television. And, in an ironic reflection on his popularity, pretty much everybody has, at some time or the other, come across a couplet wrongly attributed to Ghalib. His love poems are immortal; his couplets so well-known that most of the more popular ones are freely quoted (and misquoted). There is, sadly, a pedestrianisation of much of Ghalib’s work.

But is this all there is to Ghalib? Beautifully written poetry, sometimes complex, sometimes a play on words, but with no greater depth? In Thinking with Ghalib: Poetry for a New Generation, Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole set out to prove that Ghalib’s poetry isn’t just very good poetry, it also encourages us to think, to explore the world around us and to examine issues that are (or should be) as pertinent today as they were in Ghalib’s time.

They do this by examining 30 couplets of Ghalib. Each couplet forms the basis of a new chapter, beginning with the couplet inscribed in Urdu, Devnagari and Roman Urdu, with a translation in English. This is followed by a more detailed explanation, for instance, by providing historical or cultural references that may elude the modern reader. Where a couplet (or part of it) can have multiple interpretations, these are provided as well. In the last part of the chapter, the authors relate the thought behind the couplet to modern matters. Interestingly, the authors are able to show that even in couplets that seem to be only about love, Ghalib often conveys a far deeper meaning, that may be extended to ideas well beyond love.

Each couplet thus provides the impetus for thought: to ponder over the questions Ghalib raises, and which the authors help simplify as well as amplify. Problems that plague both India and Pakistan, of corruption, religious intolerance, self-seeking ambition, and more: many of these are touched upon. The result is a book that, while it helps demystify some of Ghalib’s work, also puts it into a contemporary framework. This serves two purposes: on the one hand, it brings Ghalib’s poetry, and not just the more well-known verses, into the reach of the average reader. Second, it helps the reader face some of the unpleasant truths about life today. It encourages the reader to think, beyond and above the trite platitudes that are trotted out and so easily swallowed by the impressionable on both sides of the border.

Thinking with Ghalib: Poetry for a New Generation
By: Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole
Publisher: Roli Books
Pages: 124
Price: Rs 395