Originally posted on 15 June 2010 :

Yesterday, I heard a rarely recited ‘shair’ of Ghalib sung by an unknown singer. There was nothing great about his voice or the music, but he was able to deliver Mirza Nosha’s message with considerable finesse. The couplet goes like this:

“Meri qismat meiN gham agar itna tha…

And then before delivering the second line, the singer repeated the first line at least six times, and then said “itna tha….itna tha…” many more times. By the time he sang the second line, my curiosity had reached a feverish pitch. I was waiting with bated breath to hear Ghalib Sahib’s craving. And when the singer was convinced that even the dumb would have heard the line, he sang the second line, just once, which reads:

“Dil bhi ya rab kai diye hote”

A link to the above ghazal is given below:

The greatness of the master’s work lies in his choice of words. He did not seek two or three hearts. Not even a hundred. He used the word “kai”  and thus sought to be granted many hearts to accommodate the volume of ‘gham’ or anguish which the Lord had given to him.

Another profound couplet in this ghazal is

“Aa hi jaata rah par Ghalib,

  Koi din aur jo jiye hote!”      (Ghalib would have come on the right path had he lives a little lnger!)

 More recently, a poet has rued

          “Ya dharti ke zakhmoN par marham rakh de

          Ya, mera dil pathhar kar de,……. ya Allah”

This is a part of the album, ‘Sajda’ which brought Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit together. The link to the above ghazal is given below: