Mirza Ghalib
Poochhte hain who ke ‘Ghalib’ kaun hai?
Koi batlao ke hum batlayain kya?
The above expression talks about Ghalib being asked to introduce himself and as he was not accustomed to introduce himself more often in gathering so that made him ask, what to tell about himself.
Mirza Ghalib, a name that clearly doesn’t need any introduction, one of the biggest names in the Urdu literature. His real name was Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan was a prominent Urdu-Persian language poet during the last few years of the Mughal dynasty. The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar was his close associate and friend. ‘Ghalib’ was not his original surname but he is known with his pen name which was ‘Ghalib’.

It was not that the poet who perfectly portrayed the expression of pain was single, but he married at a very young age when he was merely thirteen to Umrao Begum, who was the daughter of Nawab of Ferozpur. He soon moved to Delhi, along with his younger brother, Mirza Yousuf, who had developed Schizophrenia at a very young age and he was later died in Delhi during the chaos of 1857.
Ghalib, who is often referred to a literary genius, was also like other husbands, who felt marriage as a second imprisonment and he portrayed that expression so beautifully that one can never imagine writing like that. According to him, even life in itself is an imprisonment. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life ends, is a recurring theme in his poetry.
Qaid-e-hayat-o-band-e-gham, asm mein dono ek hai,
Maut se pehle aadmi gham se nijaat paye kyu?
Translation : The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and the same
Before the onset of death, why should man expect to be free of grief?
Mirza Ghalib had that very strange style of writing, he was very proud of being ‘Mirza Ghalib’ which was clearly seen in his writings. One of his writings includes a wonderful elegant couplet which reads:
Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai,
Aakhir iss marz ki dawa kya hai?
Translation:
O innocent heart, what happened to you?
What is the cure for this pain, after all?

“Hai aur bhi duniya mein sukhanwar bahut ache
Kehte hain ke ghalib ka hai andaaz-e-bayaan aur.”
(“There are many good poets worthy of praise, But it is said that Ghalib has a distinctive style.”) – Mirza Ghalib
As I told you during his last days he lived in Ballimaran, Chandani Chowk, Old Delhi in a haveli which is now a museum maintained by the Government of Delhi. The haveli was presented to Ghalib by a hakim (traditional physician) who was an ardent fan of his poetry. It was here that Ghalib wrote some of his finest ghazals and recited them to a huge audience every evening. After Ghalib’s death in 1869, the crestfallen hakim who had presented the haveli to Ghalib would go and sit there for hours every evening refusing to let anyone occupy it.

We had many more writers who came after and were contemporary of Mirza Ghalib but his writing style was unique and uniform throughout his lifetime. He is still remembered and he is often called as the most read urdu shayar of our time. According to the records, he was born on the 27th of December, we bow down in front of the greatness of this magnificent writer Mirza Ghalib.
Eshan Sharma
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