There was a discussion the other day of Zafar's Delhi and the Nawabs of Awadh. People quoted their favorite poets; there was a sadness for days gone by. Gauri described those times perfectly and I quote her below:
'Those were times of political turmoil, a very weak,inefficient,crumbling administration , a threat of a change in order was imminent and no one quite knew how it would turn out. But what of the 'adab', the 'nazaaqat' the 'saleeqa' of a tehzeeb that since then has crumbled, the loss of a language that was essentially Indian and yet seems 'foreign' to most Indians now?'
What of? And these couplets rose unbidden to my mind:
'Those were times of political turmoil, a very weak,inefficient,crumbling administration , a threat of a change in order was imminent and no one quite knew how it would turn out. But what of the 'adab', the 'nazaaqat' the 'saleeqa' of a tehzeeb that since then has crumbled, the loss of a language that was essentially Indian and yet seems 'foreign' to most Indians now?'
What of? And these couplets rose unbidden to my mind:
Kya mol Yeh Nazakat, yeh tarbiyat, yeh taaleem
'Ke' phir Zamana badal gaya, zubaan badal gayi
Phir masroof raho, vilayati taalim mein,
Yeh hi teri kismet, isee mein teri khushi
Tabeeyat e tawayaf, puraane yaaron pe kya rona
Zaalim toh woh bhi thei, Be-abroo to ab bhi hum.
And here I was hoping to write a villanelle...
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