KARACHI, Feb 25: It was a unique experience to see and hear Urdu's greatest poet Mirza Ghalib address a press conference organised by Bazm-i-Ghalib Pakistan and the Arts Council Karachi on the council's premises on Friday. Ghalib (whose role was played by TV producer Bakhtiar Ahmed) looked in his element and exhibited, to a reasonable extent, the wit for which he's famous.Ghalib leisurely came to the podium and said after his death (Feb 15, 1869) he was first invited by Khwaja Moinuddin to visit this part of the world (reference to Moinuddin's play Mirza Ghalib Bunder Road Per) and now it's the people of contemporary Pakistan on whose insistence he was visiting them. He talked about the inventions of radio and television through which he got to know about the current state of the country, and commented that targeted killings, incidents of extortion and inflation had reminded him of ghadar (mutiny).

It was when he started to criticise, in a satirical manner, what the media had done with the Urdu language that the audience started to get the feel of vintage Ghalib. He said the media was abusing the language by employing words like 'alfazon', 'murwaja' and using words like 'mumkin' with the additional phrase of 'ho sakta hai'. He said recently on TV one singer sang his ghazal Koi umeed bur nahin ati, and pronounced the word 'bur' as bhur.

After his brief speech Mirza Ghalib responded to the questions put to him by the audience. Replying to a question, he said unless people weren't asked to correct their Urdu or the use of certain words, things wouldn't improve. He said the Urdu language should be treated with importance at homes, in educational institutions and at offices. Answering a question about his take on 'hoors', he said as of now he hadn't reached that part of afterlife. It has to be said that Mirza sahib sounded less eloquent and witty during the question and answer session than while he was delivering his speech.

Prior to Mirza Ghalib's press conference, Prof Sahar Ansari shed light on the various aspects of the great poet's life and poetry. He said the poet had something to do with troubled times as when he lived the mutiny of 1857 took place, and when his centenary was being celebrated the country was going through turbulent times, as was the case in Feb 2011. He said Ghalib was an extremely witty man, because of which Maulana Hali had called him 'haiwan-i-zareef'. In that context he narrated a few interesting anecdotes from his life.

Prof Ansari then talked about the quality of Ghalib's poetry and said he combined emotion and thought (jazba aur fikr) in a remarkable way, and touched upon different subjects at a time when no one was doing so — Pakrey jatey hain farishton ke likhay per nahaq/Admi koi hamar dam-i-tahreer bhi tha. Ghalib went through many an ordeal in his life, but never wavered or flinched and kept composing high quality poetry — Raat din gardish mein hain saat asman/ Ho rahey ga kuchh na kuchh ghabraen kia. He said even his letter writing had a unique style which had now become an inalienable part of Urdu literature.

The press conference was followed by a mushaira. The event which was part of Ghalib's 142nd death anniversary was conducted by Tanvir Kazmi.