A session on 'Urdu Ghazal New Formations' was held at the 14th International Urdu Conference at the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, which was moderated by Nasira Zuberi. On this occasion, Ambreen ...

The term homosexual was coined in 19 th century Europe but its categorisation for the people in the Indian subcontinent had existed long before. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) ...

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 ...

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 ...

Frances W. Pritchett, a well-known critic of Urdu and professor at Columbia University, writes: “To me ghazal’s reliance on its wonderful networks of images and conventions makes it very clear that ...

September 6, 2018. A historic day for queer Indians and their allies. The Supreme Court decriminalises homosexuality. My friends and I celebrate by getting a cake with Azadi piped on it in white icing ...

What is a poet, really? Not the textbook definition, but the real answer—a poet is the person a civilisation deputises to feel on its behalf. When a whole society cannot articulate its longing, its ...

Whenever lyricists of Bollywood or Lollywood seemed stuck for the beginning of a song, they could always turn to Mir. One of his most famous ghazals 'Patta patta boota boota haal hamare jaane hain' ...

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 ...

I first encountered Ghalib in the early 1970s. I was in graduate school, studying poetry. Then, as now, I had no Urdu. The medium of transmission—translation—was Aijaz Ahmad’s Ghazals of Ghalib, from ...

English readers have loved Russian classic writers, the French naturalists, and the Latin American greats without even bothering to know the names of their English translators. The Translator’s ...