Ghalib can be pretty intimidating at times, kinda like reading Shakespeare. But his work presents urdu at its best. The cynical dry humor and self mockery...his work is a class apart. My grandfather adored Ghalib and i grew up with it, and then my Arabic lessons helped some but it still stumps me. Thanx for the link to the dictionary.
I saw only couple of episodes of Mirza Ghalib, but for 2 years after that serial premiered, for 2 years all we listened to at home, in the car, morning, noon, night - was the music from the serial. It irrevokably transformed my husband, who'd been a western-music-kinda-guy with no knowledge of Urdu. When i translated "Dil hi to hai na sango khisht" for him it blew his mind away that there was something so beautiful right under his nose and he had never explored it. We heard nothing else for 2 years, nothing nothing nothing except Ghalib, which was a-ok with me. LOL.
Since then we have bought several copies of the cassette and CDs and it still remains our favorite.
Jagjit really enchanted the ordinary man with Ghalib. Before that there had been a few singers, but hadn't been anything worth talking about. The chaste and classical urdu, a difficult to understand language, that itself had made it out of bounds for ordinary people. I would strongly recommend the CD to anyone whose interested in classical Urdu poems...
na thaa kuchh to Khudaa thaa, kuchh na hotaa to Khudaa hotaa
Duboyaa mujh ko hone ne, na hotaa mai.n to kyaa hotaa ?
huaa jab Gam se yuu.N behis to Gam kyaa sar ke kaTane kaa
na hotaa gar judaa tan se to zaa.Nno.n par dharaa hotaa
[behis=shocked/stunned, zaa.Nno.n=thigh]
huii muddat ke 'Ghalib' mar gayaa par yaad aataa hai
wo har ek baat pe kahanaa ke yuu.N hotaa to kyaa hotaa
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