INDIA | VASUDHAIVAKUTUMBAKAM | URDU POETRY

Here is a song for the India that I fell so hopelessly in love with

(recreated from the Urdu of Mirza Asādullah Beg Khān “Ghālib”)

the shapes of India — drawing by Balkrishna Doshi (1927–2023) — vadehraart.com

The India I fell in love with was a portmanteau of peoples, languages, literatures, fates, tastes, shades, shapes, colors, sounds, fragrances, scripts, scriptures, beliefs, arguments, traditions, values, beliefs, outlooks, hopes, opportunities, futures.

My story with India took off in in my childhood — and by the time I reached adolescence I had chosen India as my lifelong bride.

Here is why I keep teaching Sanskrit

My story with India has brought me a samudra of pleasures, but not without the inevitable grains of pain and sorrow.

five verses from a ghazal by Ghālib, liberally interpreted and freely rendered — flaleman, Delhi 2002

Here is the original Urdu by Ghālib. I leave it to the connoisseurs of these poems (alas, there aren’t many of those left in the latest…