MIRZA GHALIB

Dabeer-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-daulah Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan (Urdu/Persian: مرزا اسد اللہ بیگ خان ), pen-name Ghalib (Urdu/Persian: غالب, ġhālib means dominant) and (former pen-name) Asad (Urdu/Persian: اسد, asad means lion) (27 December 1797[1] — 15 February 1869), was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of.[2] Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in South Asia, to be the one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular amongst Urdu speakers not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.[3]

He never worked for a livelihood, lived on either state patronage, credit or the generosity of his friends. His fame came to him posthumously. He had himself remarked during his lifetime that although his age had ignored his greatness, it would be recognized by later generations

He died in Delhi on February 15, 1869. The house where he lived in Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, in old Delhi, has now been turned into 'Ghalib Memorial' and houses a permanent exhibition on him.

Mirza was born in KalaMahal in Agra. His birth place was later, in 19th centuries, converted in a girls school known as Indrabhan Girls Inter College. The birth room of Mirza galib is present till this time in the school. Around 1810, he was married into a family of Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh Khan of Loharu' (younger brother of the first Nawab of Loharu, Nawab Mirza Ahmad Baksh Khan [7], at the age of thirteen. He had seven children, none of whom survived (this pain has found its echo in some of Ghalib's ghazals). There are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing while Ghalib was carefree, unconventional, and arguably, not very religious in the strict sense of the word.