Mehr Afshan Farooqi is an Associate Professor in the department of Middle Eastern And South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virginia.
She is currently in India on a Fellowship to work on her book on the great Urdu poet, Asadullah Khan Ghalib.
Poets-writers do not function in a vacuum, they belong to a milieu, have a circle of friends and rivals and an audience of...
Published17 Aug, 202508:51am
It is perplexing that Muhammad Husain Azad (1830-1910), author of the scintillating, so-called ‘first history of Urdu poetry’,
Updated05 Aug, 202405:14pm
This past year I designed an undergraduate course that I called ‘The Poetry of Love’. One of the challenges of the course was how
Published28 Jan, 202409:15am
The great 19th century Urdu and Farsi poet Ghalib was a master in creating neologisms. He excelled in pushing language to its...
Published26 Nov, 202308:26am
Kunwar Muhammad Jamilur Rahman Khan Jamil was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. He served as Joint Secretary Halqa-i-Takhleeq
Published23 Jul, 202305:25am
The hospital twinkles with lights, like a beacon dispelling the darkness of the winter morning. The lobby sparkles. A steady...
Published21 May, 202307:58am
‘Constriction’ is a multivalent word. It holds in its depths a slew of emotions. It is like a tight knot of feelings inside your
Published19 Mar, 202308:02am
Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib began and concluded his first collection of Urdu poetry — his Divan published in 1816 — with a
Published13 Nov, 202208:08am
We warmed up quickly to the charming brother. He mentioned the sama [meditation ceremony] of the whirling dervishes that happened
Published11 Sep, 202205:54am
I keep thinking of the youth with the two little rabbits, sitting by the side of the frenzied path on the boardwalk. The two...
Published31 Jul, 202211:52am
