Reading Mirza Ghalib can be an exhilarating experience, a mix of emotions that hits you all at once. As a reader, one can never be sure what his couplets exactly mean, though of course, their meanings have various interpretations.In an attempt to ease out some of the works by Ghalib, Dr Gurupdesh Singh, an author, academician and literary critic, comes out with his latest book, ‘Ghalib in the Glasshouse’. The book is an interpretation of ‘Divan-e-Ghalib’, a collection of 234 Urdu ghazals composed by Ghalib. Anisur Rahman, author of ‘The Essential Ghalib’ and Sahitya Akademi prize winner, describes the book as ‘an entirely different perspective on Ghalib’. Alok Bhalla, critic and translator, author of ‘Partition Dialogues’, says that “the book establishes a close linkage between the grandeur of Ghalib’s writings and his romantic and metaphysical doubt.”“Divan-e-Ghalib is a little compendium of his poetic self-expression, his expansive worldview, his personal travails, his affable wit and intelligence. His readers find it engaging and challenging, though they are not always sure what it is that moves their head or heart,” said Dr Gurupdesh Singh.Some connoisseurs of Ghalib have appreciated the intensity of his verses by relating them to his life events, but Dr Gurupdesh calls Ghalib a ‘whole package’. “Ghalib is one of the most exciting poets to study, challenging even. He unnerves you, mesmerises you and at the same time, strikes you with his intellect that touches the borders of mysticism. As we read the ‘Divan..’’, we learn that Ghalib does not come up as one romantic lover, but a whole package of worldly and spiritual wisdom, of human courage and frailties, besides being a master composer,” said Dr Gurupdesh. His previous work was deciphering the poems by Nasir Kazmi, one of the most celebrated contemporary Urdu poets of his era, who extensively brought out the pain of Partition, displacement and longing in his poetry. Dr Gurupdesh retired as Professor of English from Guru Nanak Dev University and has been working as a linguistic scholar and translator before turning an author.Passionate about poetry and curious about poets, who unnerve him as a reader, Dr Gurupdesh said that Ghalib finds a new meaning and interpretation for the new generation readers. “Ghalib has an uncanny sense of loading his words with metaphors, as he frequently does. These verses become a veritable intellectual exercise. Ghalib has been interpreted most often in terms of his life events and letters. This intensive study of ‘Diwan-e-Ghalib’, takes the discussion on these ghazals through his rhetoric and style, themes and his humour,” he said.For this study, he adopted the version that was used by Francis Pritchett, a professor of Modern Indic Languages at Columbia University, who in turn trusted the 1958 edition of Imityaaz Ali Arshi’s ‘Divan-e Ghalib’.
