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Geniuses are gifted with unusual creativity and vision and, therefore, are often ahead of their time. This gift sometimes becomes a burden as ordinary folks cannot understand fully the ideas proffered by geniuses and think of them as eccentric or even worse.
This is exactly what happened to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869). One of the greatest poets of Urdu, Ghalib created verses that many thought of as worthless or meaningless. Some even go to the extent of declaring him not ‘one’ of the greatest poets, but ‘the greatest’ poet of Urdu. But it is today’s critic and today’s reader who holds Ghalib in high esteem. Ghalib did not get the recognition and respect that he deserved (and desired) in his lifetime. In fact, this poetic genius was considered odd as his poetry sounded so different and difficult that for many it was odd or even incomprehensible totally. As a result, he was even ridiculed and his poetry was declared as tortuous and complex as to become ‘meaningless’. But Ghalib shrugged it off and wrote whatever he wanted to, hoping that his views and poetry would be appreciated, now or later. As he had predicted in one of his Persian couplets, Ghalib’s poetry found the real fame after his death.
And he was amply compensated by the nature, albeit after his death: those who ridiculed him are little known or almost forgotten, but Ghalib still lives on, even 150 years after his death. Hardly any year goes by without new books being published on Ghalib. The first book written on Ghalib’s life was his disciple Altaf Hussain Hali’s work Yadgar-i-Ghalib (1897) that coincided with Ghalib’s 100th birth anniversary.
Now a book on Ghalib has appeared, just in time to commemorate Ghalib’s 150th death anniversary. Titled Aap beeti: Mirza Ghalib, it is a biography of Ghalib. Researched, annotated and written by Dr Khalid Nadeem, the book is a careful and authentic account of Ghalib’s life. The writer has been ever so careful as to narrate every event either in Ghalib’s own words or as close with Ghalib’s own account as possible. Meticulous research and thorough scholarship has made the book Ghalib’s most authentic and complete biography as it is based mostly on Ghalib’s Urdu and Persian works. For this, Khalid Nadeem, as he has described in the preface to the book, used Ghalib’s Urdu and Persian letters as the first and foremost source. Ghalib’s Urdu letters edited by Khaliq Anjum and Ghalib’s Persian letters edited by Partau Roheela and Tanveer Ahmed Alavi are used.
Then comes Dastamboo (1858), sort of Ghalib’s diary or journal, that he wrote in Persian and used it to record the events that took place between the beginning of War of Freedom (May 1857) and July 1858. Khalid Nadeem has also referred and quoted from Khwaja Ahmed Farooqi’s Urdu translation of Dastamboo. He has also referred to the previous authentic works on Ghalib’s life and these works are by some towering figures, such as Altaf Hussain Hali, Ghulam Rasool Mehr, Sheikh Muhammad Ikram, Malik Ram, Khaliq Anjum, Bari Alig, Qasim Ali, Kazim Ali Khan, Kalidas Gupt Reza and Gauher Naushahi.
Khalid Nadeem has tried to write everything either in Ghalib’s own words or as the gist of what Ghalib had written about his own life, family and different events of his life. But at a few places, where no account by Ghalib was available, Khalid Nadeem used some authentic sources and has put those words into square brackets so as to distinguish it from Ghalib’s own words. Aside from those patches, the book is not Ghalib’s biography, but we can safely say it is, almost, Ghalib’s autobiography.
One can well imagine the care, labour, research and time that must have gone into preparing this most authentic biography of Ghalib (or autobiography, whichever you prefer). In fact, the work carries the seal of the mastery that Khalid Nadeem’s previous research works are known for, especially the biographies of Shibli Nomani and Allama Iqbal that he has penned. Khalid Nadeem is associate professor at Sargodha University’s Urdu department where he has also assumed the charge as departmental head recently.
Though Ghalib’s couplets have sparingly been used with the text, they are prompt and increase the impact. Interestingly, names of all the 10 chapters of the book have been taken from a line or a part of a couplet by Ghalib. Published by Lahore’s Nashriayaat, the book also carries a glossary of difficult words.
The book is a befitting tribute to Ghalib on his 150th death anniversary as this year February 15 marks Ghalib’s 150th death anniversary. Ghalib died in Delhi on February 15, 1869.
Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2019
