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 ...

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 ...

Anisur Rahman, currently senior advisor to the Rekhta Foundation, and formerly professor and head of English at Jamia Millia Islamia University, is the author of numerous books and essays on ...

There is perhaps no one in our country at least, who has not at one time or another in his or her life, been influenced by the beauty and softness of a “ghazal”. Reading a ghazal is one thing and ...

This is an excerpt from the Preface to Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi: The Wonderful World of Urdu Ghazals, selected, edited and translated by Anisur Rahman, HarperCollins India, detailing the journey of ...

THE word ghazal is derived from an Arabic root and it means ‘to talk amorously to women’. According to some scholars, ghazal also means ‘a doleful cry of pain uttered by a deer when surrounded by ...