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 ...

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 venerable 89-year-old literary theorist on his early memories of growing up in Balochistan, arriving in Delhi after Partition, on the poetry of Ghalib and Mir, and on his lifelong association with ...

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 ...

Modern Urdu poem, or ‘jadeed nazm’, is a genre that is comparatively young. It was born in 1874. In comparison, Urdu ghazal is as old as Urdu literature itself and Ameer Khusrau (who died in the year ...

Shadab Zeest Hashmi’s Baker of Tarifa based on the history of interfaith tolerance in Al-Andalus won the 2011 San Diego Book Award for poetry. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize ...