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Words are the medium of expression for humans ... but words also put limitations, boundaries. God is free from... Published Dec 08, 2019 08:46am

In the course of my journey with Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s Divans, I noticed how he carefully chose verses ... Published Oct 06, 2019 07:04am

Hujum-i-fikr se dil misl-i-mauj larze hai Keh shishah nazuk-o-sehba-i-abginah gudaz [The heart pulses with a storm Published Aug 04, 2019 07:08am

Have you ever looked at your bookshelf and noticed how many titles by women have made it there? Not many, I would... Published Jun 02, 2019 07:16am

“Hoon garmi-i-nishat-i-tasavvur se naghma sanj/ Main andalib-i-gulshan-i-na afridah hoon” [I sing from the... Published Mar 24, 2019 07:11am

There are oceans of writing in Urdu and Persian that haven’t been translated into other languages. A slew of... Published Jan 06, 2019 06:33am

Yasmeen Hameed has published five collections of poems from 1988 to 2012 and edited anthologies of Pakistani Urdu... Published Oct 21, 2018 08:34am

Living and teaching in the United States for the last 20 years in departments of languages and cultures, I have... Published Aug 12, 2018 07:47am

Don’t be awed by Urfi because he is from Shiraz Don’t be captivated by Zulali because he is from Khwansar Come... Published Jun 10, 2018 06:53am

Garden imagery can be allegorical, metaphorical or simply romantic. In classical Persian and Urdu ghazal, the garden... Published Apr 08, 2018 06:48am

I like the musical, poetic quality of the name ‘Saqi Farooqi’. Who would choose such an outlandish name for... Published Feb 11, 2018 06:38am

At the Annual Conference on South Asia held at the University of Wisconsin, a highlight for Urduwallahs used to be... Published Nov 26, 2017 06:58am

History is temporal. The historical model tends to build walls between eras, creating boxes of time. Literary texts... Published Sep 10, 2017 07:04am

Some months ago I wrote about Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s fascination with silence, discussing a ghazal from his... Updated Jun 29, 2017 01:32pm

Last month I attended a symposium enticingly titled “What is a poem?” The organisers had posed the following... Updated May 07, 2017 10:31am

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib often questions the capacity of words to express thoughts, asking if silence ... Updated Mar 16, 2017 07:30am

On reading Chiragh-i-Shab-i-Afsana — Asif Farrukhi’s tribute to the late, great, Intizar Husain Published Jan 08, 2017 08:58am

On Intizar Husain’s legacy of cultural wisdom and poets who mourned migration in ways similar to his Updated Jan 08, 2017 08:33am

Ali Akbar Natiq’s writings are his attempt to portray life as it is lived, with all its injustice, cruelty, Updated Jan 08, 2017 08:33am

Farooqi recalls holding a mystery manuscript at the Ghalib Institute in New Delhi which appeared to be the 1816 divan Updated Jul 17, 2016 08:42am