Author: Pavan K Varma
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1989
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140116648
Description
This path-breaking biography captures evocatively the spirit of the man and the essence of the times he lived in. A brilliant biography of nineteenth century India's greatest poet. An absorbingly readable account of the great poet and his age, says Khushwant Singh in Sunday.
Ghalib began writing poetry in Persian at the age of nine and the pre-eminent poet of the time, Mir, predicted a great future for the precocious genius when he was shown his verse . . . But success and material rewards did not come to Ghalib easily for the times were against him, and he did not suffer fools gladly even if they occupied positions of importance.
Though Ghalib lived through the upheavals and purges of the Revolt, in which many of his contemporaries and friends died, and his beloved Delhi was symmetrically and irrevocably changed, he was a broken man and longed for death. When he died on 15th February, 1989, he left behind some of the most vivid accounts of the events of the period ever written.