How Ghalib is relevant to today’s youth

The state, the society and the clergy all complain that the youth have not been giving attention to them. They all vie for the youth’s attention but they do not get it because they are unable to provide answers to their questions. However, lawyer Faisal Siddiqui believes that renowned Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib provides answers to the youth's questions through his poetry when the other in authoritative positions fall short.

Siddiqui was speaking at a panel discussion titled ‘Ghalib Companion of The Youth’ arranged by the Anjuman-e-Ashiqan-e-Mir-o-Ghalib at the TDF Ghar on Saturday. The discussion was followed by ghazal night.

The two-year-old Anjuman is of the lovers of Ghalib and Mir and the event was held to commemorate Ghalib’s death anniversary.

Pakistani poet and researcher Hijaz Naqvi spoke on what lies in the poetry of Ghalib for the youth. He lamented how we force our youth to cram Ghalib and Mir’s poetries and their explanations as well. He said that writing commentary on Ghalib’s poetry was the job of a learned poet, researcher or writer. A young student, he said, could not do it.

He said that what generally the students of Intermediate did was they got notes of some learned professors and crammed them by heart in order to reproduce them in examinations.

Cramming in one’s own language, he said, was more difficult than memorising something written in a foreign language. “The students are not learning Ghalib, but cramming their teacher’s written explanation of Ghalib’s poetry,” Naqvi said.

Siddiqui spoke on why we should study Ghalib. He asked about the relevance of Ghalib for the youth of the present day. “Why should I pick Ghalib’s Diwan? I can watch Tiktok instead?” he asked.

He then recited Ghalib’s line “Ghalib-e-Khasta Ke Baghair Kaun Se Kaam Band Hain” (What tasks are incomplete without the support of the ailing Ghalib?). The lawyer explained how Ghalib had called himself useless in that line. He then asked that if Ghalib was useless, whether one could get answers of fundamental questions by reading his poetry.

He then went on to say that today the youth were in a problem because the clergy, the state, the society and the world were after them. They all wanted the youth to behave in a certain way but Ghalib, on the contrary, gave those answers to the youth, which all of the above failed to provide, he remarked.

Naqvi interjected and said that unless a young member of our society had experienced a setback at the hands of society, he or she aspired to live a life of Ishq (love), but then came the parents, the society and even the maulvi, who, he said, told the youth how to live without Ishq.

In a girl and boy’s love story, there has to be input from both, but Ghalib, he said, did not see life like this. One who lived the life governed by Ishq, and then embraced all the sorrows and problems of the world would be able to live the life of Ghalib, he said.

Siddiqui said Ghalib was important for those who listened to his poetry at night or those who carried out research on his poetry. He then asked whether we would die if we followed Ghalib’s ideology of love. There was no answer to it.