Mirza Ghalib - a humble tribute!

I know thousands of amateurs and romantics, poets and shayars have tried their hands at the impossible....but nevertheless couldn't resist the urge in myself to do the same. It is said that every single line written by Mirza Ghalib can be interpreted in numerous different ways, each word, couplet... having a life and meaning of its own. The blind listens to it as music and the deaf darns its colors; but only the poet knows the thought behind it.

Before making this beautiful, creative and almost spiritual journey, its only fair to take a moment to introduce and thank this wonderful teacher, magician, poet, author.... for the sake of simplicity of addressing lets call him a "master of words". I will take this section to speak about the person that Ghalib was; my next few blogs will try to comprehend some of his timeless masterpieces.

Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan Ghalib (27 December 1797 – 15 February 1869), was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule. He was seldom also known by his former pen-name, Asad.

During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in South Asia, to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.

The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a recurring theme in his poetry. One of his couplets puts it in a nutshell.

The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and the same
Before the onset of death, how can man expect to be free of grief