A marble tomb and gravestone sprinkled with petals: Rediscovering Ghalib in the city

It’s away from Gali Qasim Jaan in Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, where the poet wrote and lived for about half a century from 1797 to 1869. The haveli that is currently attributed to Ghalib is where the most-quoted poet in the subcontinent spent the last nine years of his life. Gifted to Ghalib by a hakeem, who admired his poetry, this haveli was a wedding hall before the Delhi government acquired it and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) restored it.

As for the Urdu poet’s tomb, it is located along the Chausath Khamba (64 pillars), which was originally built by Mirza Aziz Koka, emperor Akbar’s foster brother, during Jahangir’s reign. It is at the end of a busy lane with vendors selling flowers and chaadar for the Nizamuddin shrine, and the aroma of freshly roasted kebabs and sheermal that wafts in the air from the nearby Ghalib Kabab Corner.

Mirza Ghalib’s resting place has a small marble tomb built over the grave and one will often find fresh rose petals on the gravestone.

Watching kids play cricket in front of the verandah of the Lal Mahal, lawyer and author Saif Mahmood, who has authored the book Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City And Her Greatest Poets, says, “If Ghalib was here, he would be playing cricket.”

Mahmood has been coming here since his childhood. “The whole space was in a very bad shape earlier. Back in the day, every year, on Ghalib’s death anniversary (February 15), there was an Urs celebrated by Ghalib Academy. But even after the place has been refurbished by Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the red sandstone structure altered with plaster, one is pained at the shape the place is in. Even today, there is no one to guide us here. This place could very well be our Stratford-upon-Avon but look at the hue and cry they make about it in England because it’s Shakespeare’s home and grave. Far from encouraging tourists, those here will start by not allowing cameras so that no one finds out the terrible shape the place is in. This is how we maintain our cultural heritage,” says Mahmood, who recites Ghalib’s famous couplet, ‘Hue mar ke hum jo ruswa, hue kyun na gark-e-darya; Na kabhi jinaaza uthta, Na kahin mazaar hota (Oh, the ignominy that death would bring! It’s better to perish at sea… Then there would be no funerals to attend, and no grave would there be).’

Ghalib ki Mazaar, the Delhi government board says at the entry. But it’s shut and in front of it are piled discarded food plates. “It should be Ghalib ka Mazaar. Mazaar is a masculine word in Urdu. Qabr hoti hai, Mazaar hota hai. So, the basics of Urdu are wrong at Ghalib’s mazaar. I had even pointed this out to the Delhi government in many emails, but Ghalib ‘Ki’ Mazaar remains,” says Mahmood. The poet’s wife Umrao Begum is buried next to him, as is poet Saghar Nizami (1905-1983).

Ghalib died in 1869. At the time he was writing, Farsi was the language of poetry, not Urdu. “Ghalib wanted to prove to everyone that he was a better Farsi poet than other Persian poets and even Urdu poets. But then he also says, Jo ye kahe ki rekhta kyunke ho rashk-e-farsi, Gufta-e-Ghalib ek baar padh ke use sun? ki yuun (If anyone asks, ‘how can Urdu compete with Farsi’, read him Ghalib’s verse and say: ‘like this’),” says Mahmood.

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According to the historian, Ghalib’s life philosophy can be found in a tiny book by him – Diwan-e-Ghalib. “His biographer, Barrister Bijnori, had once said that India has only had two revealed books — the holy Vedas and Diwan-e-Ghalib. Ghalib isn’t just a poet of husn (beauty) and visaal (lust) or sharaab (alcohol) or kebab. The kind of humanism you find in him, you will find it in just about four-five poets all over the world. That wry sense of humour, some amazing letters — these are as amazing as his poetic heritage; they are of immense value,” says Mahmood, who also believes that if you see Ghalib as a humanist, he is, of the same stature, if not greater, than Khusrau or Nizamuddin.

“Jo baat ye (Ghalib) keh gaye hain, I feel it’s sometimes far deeper even than Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau, who are buried here close by and look how those spaces are conserved,” says Mahmood. “People have deep faith when it comes to the Nizamuddin dargah. It’s a spiritual connect. But that faith does not lie with Ghalib. People have this opinion that someone who drank and gambled, how could he be a philosopher. And even if he is, one needs to stay away from his philosophy,” says Mahmood.

In 2016-17, the Maharashtra Police filed an affidavit in the tribunal under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) saying that they had found a Ghalib couplet in the diary of an alleged suspect. “So, according to them, this was seditious. Now Urdu is called a Muslim language by many, so this probably stemmed from there,” says Mahmood, who hopes that the courtyard around the tomb can be utilised for a mushaira or a literary event around Ghalib. “So much can be done here. One can only hope,” says Mahmood, as we walk out.

As we leave, the children are still playing cricket. And in the midst of the sound of an electric iron cutter and the sight of discarded plastic plates, one is left wondering if the poet chose well in adopting Delhi — the place he cherished as his beloved — as home for his burial.