Connecting Ghalib with the realities of life encountered by contemporary readers, this volume departs from the traditional approach and abandons the ghazalas the primary medium for introducing this extraordinary poet to new readers.
 
With a selection of couplets from Ghalib’s ghazals that best exemplify his power as a source of insight, knowledge, and wisdom, these are presented in Urdu, Hindi, and Roman transliteration along with a literal translation, and interpretation, relating it to the central social, political and economic issues of our times. It is the creative timelessness of his poetry that makes this a ‘brilliant contribution to understanding the past in the present.’