Memories of Mirza Ghalib— A Curious Romance
Mirza Ghalib’s death anniversary on February 15, which coincided with Basant Panchami this year, passed without the enthusiasm witnessed on his birthday (December 27). A visit to Gali Mir Qasim Jan in the morning, unfurls nothing unusual at his haveli, part of which has been turned into a memorial. On setting my feet in I found an old man was standing outside with his grandson, waiting for a rickshaw to take the boy to the madrassa. Asked about Ghalib, he frowned his brows and went on, “You are talking, about someone who did not set a good example all his life. He passed his days in romantic reveries and the evenings at mushairas or in drinking and courting dancing girls. Such a Mussalman hardly needs to be remembered. Even though he lived next to a masjid, he hardly ever visited it.” To show off his scholarship, made a wisecrack of a couplet: “Masjid ke zer sai ek ghar bana liya hai /Ek banda-i-qamina hamsai khuda hai”. If the man thought of himself as such a wretche...
