Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City And Her Greatest Poets

An excellent work

After reading this book, I just felt this one emotion - You are still, until art moves you. Thank you Saif, thank you a million times. When I first saw you at the Faiz-Firaq session in JLF, I had no idea I would be so grateful to you 2 years hence. You've brought together the best of the best themes, poetry, history, language and Delhi. (Aah what more is there to life?) And how beautifully so? The stories are told in a way that places you right in the midst of the mushairas or in the bazaars of Jahanabad no matter which corner of the planet you're on (certainly worked for me from Ireland). :) And the translations don't just capture the meaning but the true soul of the verses and squeeze it in your heart. The choice of verses is also commendable and befitting of a true johari, using poetry to bring to life the idiosyncrasies of each of these poets of our beloved Delhi. Thank you Beloved Saif. Will be ardently waiting for your next book. :)

A good primer on Delhi shayeri

Whether it is the biting wit of Mirza Sauda or the kaleidoscopic brilliance of Mir Taqi Mir to the relatively lesser known but equally proficient Momin Khan Momin or the very blunt Shaikh Ibrahim Zauq... this is one of buffet of rich poetry to be savored at leisure..The poetry by itself also serves as history lesson of sorts, for instance,by showing the emotions of Mir Taqi Mir as Delhi gets plundered from 1737 by Baji Rao and then by Nadir Shah and then successively by Ahmed Shah Abdali and the Marathas, the Sikhs etc...A beautiful compendium and well written doubling the pleasure the reader experiences thereby..

A well-written book that takes you back to an older, kinder and more poetic Delhi. The author has done a great job in introducing the reader to Delhi's renowned Urdu poets. All are familiar with Mirza Ghalib and the chapter on him refamiliarises us with him but for me it was the introduction to the others. I was aware of Bahadur Shah Zafar being a poet himself (remember the show starring Ashok Kumar on Doordarshan), and through this book got to know about many others.The book is also a requiem of sorts, for we can now only see that Delhi in the pages of a book and not in reality.The book is absolutely a must read for anyone wanting to know more about Delhi, poetry and, of course, experiencing the beauty that is Urdu.

The subject of the work is interesting and it comes as a real tribute to the poets who loved and lived in Delhi. The author beautifully draws the biographical sketch of the poets and then tries to highlight their poetic contributions by emphasising the most important and interesting poetry of selected poets. The lack of effect of the language used in the book as well as its presentation reminds me an old adage ‘Be with Romans, behave like Romans’. Moreover, the author’s failure to dwell deeper into the intellectual perspectives of these great poets is visible in many parts of the book. Had he been able to do that, the value of this work would have increased manyfold. However, it may be primarily due to the fact that author is not an academic inquiring into this field but his attempt and attachment to these great poets is highly appreciable.