ASAD - 102

Originally posted on rec.music.indian.misc in 1997

Those were the days before independence. The atmosphere in the country was of freedom-struggle. Naturally, this was reflected in the poetry too. Iqbal, Chakbist, Josh and others wrote poetry on these aspects. The soul of GHazal then - ishq - was sidelined. In fact, even GHazal as a form of poetry was not anymore in vogue.

It seemd that, GHazal is in its last stages. The end was near. The fact, that it didn't, is mainly due to a few handful of poets, one of which is the Shayar under discussion.

His poetry was mainly about prem and pyar, some times about ishq and muhabbat and otherwise about love. :-) That is about love and love only.

By writing such poetry, he gave a rebirth to GHazal.

And probably that's why he said in another ultra-famous sher ...

arbaab-e-siyaasat = politicians [ political scientists ?? arbaab = lord and siyaasat = politics/deception(!!!) ]

unka jo farz hai, arbaab-e-siyaasat jaane !
mera paighaam muhabbat hai ! jahaN tak pahuNche

Maybe he addressed it to the poets who wrote about politics, or maybe he simply meant masters-of-deception literally.

In any case, people loved this rebirth of GHazal. And the work of this poet became "Classical Literature" in his own life-time !

So ! Those of you who thought, it's Iqbal we are discussing now know that it's not so. :-) Iqbal, although one of the greatest poets, is primarily a poet of Nazm. According to many, when it comes to GHazal, the name after Ghalib and Meer is .....

:-) :-)

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