The Mufti’s praises are not enough for our poet. The Mufti expresses his appreciation to Ghalib the Kotwal spends his time hurriedly writing down the ghazal Ghalib has just recited. It seems, even in the more intellectual environment of the mushaira, nobody except the Mufti (Murad) and the Kotwal, Hashmat Khan (Ulhas) can find anything to appreciate in Ghalib’s poetry. The general populace thinks his ghazals too profound and his Urdu too difficult. It’s a literary evening in mid-19th century Delhi, where the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’ (Iftekhar), himself a poet of considerable stature, is hosting a mushaira.Īt the mushaira, the poetry of Zauq is much applauded Mirza Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’, on the other hand, finds no takers for his ghazals. And like me, Ghalib loved to hear his writing being praised. Like me, he too was a writer (and before I have Ghalib fans leaping at my throat for daring to lump the two of us together: no, I do not compare myself to the man. Like me, the Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib was a Dilliwala. So, having done my bit of shameless self-promotion-and wound up at exactly the place I wanted this post to go-I’ll begin with this review. And yes (I can’t resist the temptation to blow my own trumpet!), others have said good things about The Englishman’s Cameo, too: Pradeep Sebastian, writing in BusinessWorld, for instance and Vivek Tejuja on. I met some likeable and interesting people, including crime writer Zac O’Yeah (in conversation with me at the Bangalore do) and blogger-cum-bestselling writer Amit Varma, author of the delightful My Friend Sancho-he was in conversation with me in Mumbai and had some nice things to say about my book. I gave endless interviews (I can now answer questions in my sleep) was wined and dined-great ilish in Kolkata and awesome Chettinad food in Chennai-and even ended up on youtube. I’m finally back from a whirlwind book tour.

Diwan el ghazal ghalib english