Mellifluous Mohammed Rafi once sang -‘Divaso judai na jay chhe ae jasey jaroor milan sudhi.’ Few know that these lyrics were penned by a Surti ghazalkaar- Abdul Gani Dahiwala. The Persian form of ...

SOME critics draw parallels between Urdu ghazal and Urdu short story. Ghazal, the most popular genre of Urdu poetry, is known for its brevity, compactness and crispness. It is this quality that has ...

Frances W. Pritchett, a well-known critic of Urdu and professor at Columbia University, writes: “To me ghazal’s reliance on its wonderful networks of images and conventions makes it very clear that ...

The father of Urdu ghazal and Chaucer of Urdu poetry in India, Shah Muhammad Waliullah or Wali Gujarati, lies here in the city. For the last 13 years, his grave has lain partially beneath a road ...

The venerable 89-year-old literary theorist on his early memories of growing up in Balochistan, arriving in Delhi after Partition, on the poetry of Ghalib and Mir, and on his lifelong association with ...

Iftekhar Raghib, a well-known Urdu poet of Indian origin living in Qatar, has published his fourth book – an anthology of Urdu ghazals (sonnets) named Yaani Tu (That is, you). An engineer by ...

In recent times, Delhi has shown an appreciation of Urdu in various forms –by participating in mushairas, attending dastangoi sessions or listening to Sufi concerts. But the scale and ambition of the ...