Ghalib remembered on 210th birth anniversary

29 december 2006 Ardent fans of Ghalib acted in a play depicting facets of his life, and the circumstances in which some of his best works were written. The Yadgar-e-Ghalib (In memory of Ghalib) festival is being held at Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi, where Ghalib lived. Born Mirza Asadullah Khan on December 27th 1797, in Agra, he changed his name to Mirza Ghalib after he began writing Urdu couplets. Known for using his poetry to speak of pain, anger, anguish and humour, Ghalib was also honoured by last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. “In that time, Ghalib’s poetry contained all elements of Urdu poetry’ the jagiriyat (assessing quality) and riwayat (culture) in Urdu are all his contributions. He was the greatest poet ever. Therefore, I would like to congratulate everybody for organising such a beautiful function,” said Bekal ‘Utsahi’, an Urdu poet.