Google on Wednesday celebrated poet Mirza Ghalib’s 220th birth anniversary with a doodle. A poet in Urdu and Persian languages during the Mughal era, Ghalib became famous for his Urdu ghazals. His poems and ghazals have been translated and recited in many languages.
Ghalib was the poet tutor to the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s eldest son. He was also appointed the royal historian of the Mughal court. In 1850, he was honoured with the title of Dabir-ul-Mulk by the emperor.
Born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan on December 27, 1797, in Agra, Ghalib started composing poems from the age of 11. After getting married at the age of 13, he settled in Delhi. His poems are tragic and usually have a recurring theme that life is a continuous struggle that ends only with death. Read three Ghalib love poems here.
However, his contributions to Urdu poetry and prose were not fully appreciated in his lifetime. Much of his fame came to him posthumously.
Ghalib died on February 15, 1869. His house in Old Delhi has been turned into a memorial.
Read how he influenced Gulzar and listen to a Ghalib ghazal featured in the trailer of Nandita Das’s forthcoming film on the writer Manto.
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