None of the Urdu anjuman anywhere cared to do that…

Yashwant Singh ji, Namaskar,  The link that I sent you for Ghalib ke Khutoot, I forgot to tell you that you may want to play back all of audio by one, Mahakavi.  These all are recited by Ziya Mohiuddin, I think,  and possibly the best. I find that after each one of these all sorts of videos of various singers pop up, distracting.  Therefore, I look for numbered sequence and play.

If you can have someone listen to all the letters of Ghalib and write in Devanagari script keeping Urdu words intact, it would be one of the greatest service to Urdu and Ghalib’s work.  I have tried to get these in Hindi for at least 15 years but no luck.  None of the Urdu anjuman anywhere cared to do that.  There is another Diwan of Ghalib, Nuskha-e-Hamidiya which has Ghalib’s earlier poetry with more Persian in it.  This is what my grandfather used to refer to to read instead of Diwan-e-Ghalib.  After years of searching I found this in Bhopal and got two copies.

One I gave to a friend and asked him to pay to someone to read it in a cassette recorder.  In short this is what I got as areply: “it is too difficult, has Persian words in it.” The other I brought with me.  Just about a year ago I came across a man who reads, writes Urdu and agreed to read it for me in a tape recorder.  I went to his apartment with the book and tapes, and he read for half hour. Then I suggested that he can keep the recorder and the book and let me know how it is coming along.  Well, he shifted, not too far though,  and I lost track of him so I not only lost the tapes he may have made but the book also.  The tape recorder is the least of my loss.

Over the years my experience is that if I asked for qalaaqand, gulabjamun, aur pajama kurta, I will get two of everything, but when I asked for a book, I’d never get it :):). In 1975 Sahitya Akadami published a series of Bhartiya Sahitya Ke Nirmaataa.  In that series there was one, Ghalib by Mohammad Mujeeb, transliterated in Devanagari by Ramesh Gaur  It is very good.  It was four rupees then. I have it. Main aapko ek she’r aur bhejta hoon Ghalib ka.  Jaisaa maine aap ko pehle likha hai main kuchh apne notes, Ghalib Study Circle se, aur Ghalib ke Khutoot, aur Ali Sardar Jafri ki kitab se madad letaa hoon.

Zulmatkade* mein mere **shab-e-gham ka josh hai
Ek sham’a hai ***daleel-e-sehar so ****kha’mosh hai

*Andhera Ghar
**Gham ki raat ka toofan (Ghalib ne iske ma’ani khud likhe hain-Andhera hee Andhera).
***Subah hone ka suboot ( Kyo’n ki shama subah bujh jaati hai)
****Bujh gayee hai.

Yeh ghazal ka matla hai.

Yeh ghazal Ghalib ki sabse behetreen ghazalon mein maanee jaati hai.  Ismein us zamane ki bhaavnaao’n ko Ghalib ne samet liya hai.  Ghalib ne apne khat mein likha hai ki: subah shama bujh jaati hai aur jis ghar mein bujhee huee shama subah hone ki daleel (suboot, prateek) ho, woh ghar kitna andhera hoga.  Yaani ki subah ki roshni nahin hai jis se yeh lage ki din nikal aayaa hai.  Shama ka bujhna sehar hone ki daleel hai.  Itna gahan andhera hai.

Ummeed hai

Regards,
Krishna Narayan