Tuesday, May 23, 2006

A Foreword...

This is a blog to revive and keep going my old passion for Urdu poetry – specifically ghazal. A passion developed and nurtured in my early days as a student took a back-seat of sorts – when the grind of life took over. Scrambling through a life – making sense of a professional goal, juggling the rising interest rates, rising fuel prices and falling returns and the song and dance keeping things going from one day to another – I just lost up on some old things.

This blog is to rekindle the old flames, relive some of my cherished ghazals, nazms etc – and here I publish the lyrics I painstakingly penned from my collection of Jagjit Singh classics or Ghulam Ali mp3’s over the years. I seem to have lost my touch in many ways… the worst of all is probably to do with age – not being able to remember the lyrics/wordings of those favourite sher’s – not even the ones I wrote in my pensive days.

I can barely read Urdu script – so I am not going to attempt writing them in Urdu. I can barely write my own name in Urdu now… Urdu is an interesting language, sweet in mannerisms, delicate in touch, and poetic even in simple diction.

        Ghazal rudaad hai naakaamiyon ki,
        Ghazal mehrumiyon ki daastaan hai  |
        Ghazal riste hue zakhmon ka marham,
        Ghazal ek chaaraa-e-dard-e-nihan hai  |
        Ghazal ka husn hi hai, husn-e-aalam,
        Ghazal ka noor hi noor-e-jahan hai |
                                      - Jagdish Bhatnagar 'Hayaat'