Hailed as one of the greatest Persion/Urdu poets of the 19th Century, Mirza Ghalib died on 15 Feb 1869 at age 71. In this edition of ThePrint Quiz, let’s see how much you know him.
In 'The Essential Ghalib’, Anisur Rahman presents an exemplary selection of Mirza Ghalib’s Urdu couplets, translated in English along with critical commentaries.
Published by HarperCollins India, 'The Essential Ghalib' will be released on 6 January on SoftCover, ThePrint’s online platform for launching non-fiction books.
Translator Ranjit Hoskote shared translations of Mir’s verses on social media, as part of ‘Project Mir’, which later took the shape of his recent book, ‘The Homeland’s an Ocean’.
The satirical play ‘Ghalib in New Delhi’ has been staged 589 times since 1997 and evolved. ‘Ghalib’ has commented on 5 PMs, multiple governments, and changing social issues.
Open mic poetry is a way for creators to find their tribe and tackle urban loneliness. And, at the centre of this revival are college students, engineers, CAs.
Set in Gali Qasim Jan in Old Delhi's Ballimaran, once home to Mirza Ghalib, Gulzar's newest poem features footage from the area during the Covid crisis.
New Delhi: The outsourcing industry, India’s largest white-collar employer, is a juggernaut that has all but stopped moving. The dollar revenue at the top...
By pairing Indian drone engineering with Japanese semiconductor expertise, the two firms aim to develop more advanced autonomous systems tailored to both defence & commercial use.
American objectives are unmet. They neither have muscle nor motivation to resume the war. As for Iran, the regime didn’t just survive, it’s now led by more radical individuals.
Another ploy to influence the youth. If the influx of Western culture and the English language caste system were not enough, now we have attempts to revive Urdu imperialism.
Meanwhile Bharatiya languages remain neglected as always, the infinitely rich literature of Bharata unread, and thus the minds of the next generation of the nation chronically underdeveloped.
Bharatiyas must never forget that the so-called language of tehjib (by implication: other languages are not cultured/civilised) has invaded not just the everyday vocabulary and pronunciation of many Bharatiya languages but also the cultural idiom of expression (from supposedly benign phrases like uparwala to slurs like the omnipresent kufr metaphor), in the end diluting sanskriti (sometimes turning it into unambiguous vikriti e.g. aurat for women!) while doubling as a vehicle for poisoning the everyday language and literature with irrational (e.g. 7 skies), regressive (e.g. parda) and foreign (e.g. deen, iman) ideas.
Even today, the most popular in Urdu literature (which I call subliterature) is dominated by one genre, and that is the ilk of Jannat ke Pattay, Mushaf, Peer e Kamil, Alif, Rab se Jurnay ka Safar (I’ve read all these titles and know firsthand) – proselytism thinly disguised as literature.
Another ploy to influence the youth. If the influx of Western culture and the English language caste system were not enough, now we have attempts to revive Urdu imperialism.
Meanwhile Bharatiya languages remain neglected as always, the infinitely rich literature of Bharata unread, and thus the minds of the next generation of the nation chronically underdeveloped.
Bharatiyas must never forget that the so-called language of tehjib (by implication: other languages are not cultured/civilised) has invaded not just the everyday vocabulary and pronunciation of many Bharatiya languages but also the cultural idiom of expression (from supposedly benign phrases like uparwala to slurs like the omnipresent kufr metaphor), in the end diluting sanskriti (sometimes turning it into unambiguous vikriti e.g. aurat for women!) while doubling as a vehicle for poisoning the everyday language and literature with irrational (e.g. 7 skies), regressive (e.g. parda) and foreign (e.g. deen, iman) ideas.
Even today, the most popular in Urdu literature (which I call subliterature) is dominated by one genre, and that is the ilk of Jannat ke Pattay, Mushaf, Peer e Kamil, Alif, Rab se Jurnay ka Safar (I’ve read all these titles and know firsthand) – proselytism thinly disguised as literature.