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For those who have
joined now, let me say few words about this Ghalib series.
Ghalib,
his Ghazals, his poems, his genius, and his wits have always fascinated
millions of Urdu lovers including myself. Those who want to read my
previous work please Ctrl + click or copy and paste in internet address
window, the following link:
http://www.mirza-ghalib.org or, if you
choose, you may send me an email request; I will email back my previous
explanations just for asking.
This is my 21st installment. I have
received excellent response from lot of friends; both Urdu and non-Urdu
speakers. Please know that this is my own, Asghar Vasanwala’s, work and
not a forwarding of someone else’s work as some you thought. Please
forward this to your friends. Also please send me your
comments/complements. I will
appreciate if you forward me emails of your Urdu/non-Urdu friends.
Here is today’s
verse (she'r) & its explanation in Urdu, Gujarati, and English



Ahbab chara-sazi-e-vehsat na kar sake
My friend
couldn’t find cure for my (love) craze
ZindaN meiN bhi Khayal bayabaaN nawrd tha
In prison also, my thoughts were
wandering in desert
Ahbab= Plural of
Habib=a friend chara-sazi=treatment, cure vehshat=extreme behavior,
craziness ZindaN=prison, confinement
bayabaaN=jungle, desert
naward= imperative of Persian verb Nawurdan=toroam
'bayabaaN nward=
one who roams in un-inhibited places like desert and jungles
This is the 6th verse of Ghalib’s 7th ghazal.
We
are skipping the 5th verse. This ghazal is not popular at
street level yet it is a beautiful one; I love it.
Meaning: To
“cure” my crazy behavior my friends put restrains on me and threw me
into a prison so that I wouldn’t roam in deserts and jungles and flare
my love-craze. Though they put physical restrains on my body, they
couldn’t restrain my thoughts and my spirit; because even in jail, I
could mentally roam in jungles and deserts. Meaning, my friends’ efforts
to restrain me, miserably failed.
I
like this verse very much. If a person is determined and has a will of
steel, no super power can restrain him. Examples of Nelson Mandela,
Mahatma Gandhi, Faiz-Ahmed Faiz, Abul Kalam Azad, Jesus Christ,
Ayatollah Khomeini and many others have put their seal of approval on
this verse which resonates from horizon to horizon.
There one more Urdu verse by someone else that testifies the same idea:
Mujhe asir kare ya meri zaban kaTe mere Khayal ko beDi pehna nahiN
sakte '
'
Asir = a prisoner
They may imprison me or
may cut off my tongue They shall never
succeed shackling my thoughts (and my spirit)
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