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‘Ghalib ka hai andaz-e-bayan aur’: Mirza Ghalib and his immortal shers (Dec 27 is Mirza Ghalib’s 220th birth anniversary)

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By Vikas Datta
His white-bearded and tall fur hat sporting visage is among the those of a handful of global wordsmiths familiar by their very appearance – Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tagore, Tolstoy, et al even as he is being forgotten in his homeland. This is rather unfortunate for Mirza Ghalib, whose fame was mostly posthumous and appeal transcends the Urdu he wrote in.

A preeminent poet of Urdu and the only one along with Iqbal, to have specific sections of study and criticism named after him – Ghalibiyat and Iqbaliyat, Mirza Ghalib, whose 220th birth anniversary falls on Wednesday (December 27) remains an remote figure for most Indians — especially in the 21st century.

This is despite a popular film, TV series, a host of ghazals, and even appearance in at least one Bollywood song (“Ishq par zor nahin Ghalib ne kaha hai..” in “Ek Duje Ke Liye”) and the occasional furore over preserving his ‘haveli’ in Old Delhi.

How many of us know Mirza Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’ (1797-1869) began writing with the pen name ‘Asad’, was known as ‘Mirza Nausha’ in his time, and was eclipsed by a host of contemporaries — right from the Emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ himself, to the royal preceptor, Sheikh Ibrahim ‘Zauq’, Hakim Momin Khan ‘Momin’, Mufti Sadruddin Khan ‘Azurda’ and more.

And then, he was equally adept in Persian too — like all educated and cultured Indians to the time — Hindu and Muslim — and also has a Diwan of Persian poetry to his credit. He was an incomparable prose stylist too, who could have established a prized place for himself in the pantheon of Urdu literature on the strength of his correspondence and autobiography only.

But it is his Urdu ghazals — a total of 235 — he is most known for, especially their rendition by the subcontinent’s most famous singers – K.L. Saigal, Mohammed Rafi, Habib Wali Mohammad, Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh, Begum Akhtar, Suraiyya, Farida Khanum, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Abida Parveen and down to Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Lets take a dozen of his most famous ghazals to give a taste of his poetry, which spanned both simple and complex construction, and dealt with issues of longing, identity, expression, existence and loss, besides the staple of love.

One of the simplest begins “Dil-e-nadaan tujhe hua kya hai/Aakhir is dard ki dava kya hai” and has that immortal couplet: “Main bhi munh mein zabaan rakhta hoon/Kaash poochho ki mudda kya hai”. On the other hand, there is one beginning: “Bazeecha-e-atfaal hai duniya mere aage/Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha mere aage”. If this makes you reach out an Urdu speaking friend, “bazeecha-e-atfal” means children’s playground and was a phrase he introduced to the Urdu language.

Then there is one beginning “Aah ko chaahiye ik umr asar hone tak…” with its evocative verses “Aashiqi sabr-talab aur tamanna betaab/Dil ka kya rang karun khoon-e-jigar hone tak” and “Ham ne maana ke taghaful na karoge lekin/Khaak ho jayenge ham tum ko khabar hone tak” and ending “Gham-e-hasti ka ‘Asad’ kis se ho juz marg ilaaj/Shamma har rang mein jalti hai sahar hone tak”.

But one of his most moving ones — perhaps due to Begum Akhtar’s soulful rendition — is “Dil hi to hai na sang-o-khisht dard se bhar na aaye kyun/Royenge ham hazaar baar koi hamen sataye kyun” and going on to “Dar nahin haram nahi dar nahi aastaan nahi/Baithe hai rahguzar pe ham ghair hame uthaaye kyun” and ending “‘Ghalib’-e-khasta ke bagair kaun se kaam band hai/Roie zaar-zaar kaa, kijiye haaye-haaye kyun”.

It is is not entirely unalloyed despair, for there are also couplets like “Jab vo jamaal-e-dilfaroz, surat-e-mahr-e-nimroz/Aap hi ho nazaarasoz, parde mein munh chupaye kyun” – or loosely “Why does that one whose beauty enlightens the heart, with a gaze like the midday sun/Whose look is itself burning veil her face”.

And then, can we forget “Hai bas ki har ik unke ishaare mein nishan aur/Karte hai mohabbat to guzarta hai guman aur” and ending with “Hai aur bhi duniya mein sukhanvar bahut achchhe/Kahte hai ki ‘Ghalib’ ka hai andaaz-e-bayaan aur”.

This could have been the best tribute for himself but his later contemporaries were kinder. While Faiz Ahmed Faiz titled his first book of verse “Naqsh-e-Faryadi” after the opening words of the first ghazal in Ghalib’s Diwan, Asrar-ul-Haq ‘Majaz Lakhnavi’ was reciting at a mushaira when a baby began crying in the audience.

Stopping his verse, Majaz instead recited the first line of the couplet in an appeal to the parents: “Naqsh fariyaadi hai kis ki shokhi-e-tahreer ka… (Whose handwriting is this complainant a copy of..”

This is how great poets live on.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at [email protected])

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

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The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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