ASAD - 49

Originally posted on rec.music.indian.misc in 1995

Not all good Shers present a novel idea. One can like a Sher just because of the word- tricks involved in it. Mind you, such Shers are not always cheapos. Let me illustrate this by an example.

This is also a typical Sher by one of my favourites - Daag Dehlvi. Not a great Sher, but still nice and enjoyable.

makeen = tenant, one who dwells

rahaa na dil me wo bedard, aur dard rahaa
makeen kaun huaa hai, makaan kis ka thaa !
- Daag Dehlvi

Calling his "dil" as a 'house' is not new, but I like the word-tricks of "dard" v/s "bedard" and "makeen" v/s "makaan" !

Needless to say, it's sung beautifully by GHulam Ali in "tumhare KHat me nayaa ik salaam kis ka tha". And related to this I would like to ask a query.

Is it really written by Daag Dehlvi ? The 'kaafiyaa' or the rhyming pattern of this GHazal, which MUST occur at the end of each Sher, is words like "salaam, naam, qalaam, shaam' etc. And they indeed are present in the GHazal. But the word 'makaan' dosen't go well with it. Why is this ? I don't think Daag would have overlooked this technical issue. ( For a detailed explanation of 'kaafiyaa' refer to the FAQ :-) )

- Abhay.
ASAD _also_ stands for "A Sher A Day" !