Chemistry of Gazals

Every style of literature as much as every period of literature has an intrinsic culture; Ghazal is a zenith. Ghazal exemplifies the respect for the beloved. On the pretext of that feeling ghazal creates many subjects & many metaphors that journey deeper & deeper into the pains & sufferings of love in all phases. Romance is an intrinsic part of growing up and romance never dies. But love is the next thing in romance. It is an absolute commitment to creation. All those who are in some way or the other related to this act are in love. It is a single point epitome of spirituality & humanity in the purest possible sense. It is a transition of body into the spirit & beginning of an experience beyond physics. In that sense romantic poetry will confine itself more to the ishq-husn politic whereas love poetry would tend to transcend itself to anything & everything under & over the sun, including the sun because love has expansive radiations & it is capable of filling up everything. It is an experience of metaphysics where the space may not be given, it could be created, beauty may not be given it could be created. Love is the final hope of the universe. In tragic times it thrives on remembrances, in good times it creates a weightlessness of the matter making it a free-floating experience; you could journey from anywhere to anywhere.

Poetry is universally an experience of the spectrum of light. Depending on where you are standing a different color ray would hot your perspective. Poetry is subject to varied interpretations by different people in the same space as much its varied interpretations by the same person in different space.

Poetry is not collection of words or idioms.

Jod kar dekhe labz-e-bayan ke bahane

Gar rubahi ban bhi jaye to kaha hai maene

Poetry is essentially born out of a deeper need to communicate.

Ghazala tum to waaqif ho kaho Majnun ke marne ki
Agar deewana na raha to veerane pe kya guzregi

Suprisingly Ghalib the king of expressions also wrote;

Magar likhvaaye koi usko khat, to hum se likhvaaye
Hui subaha, aur ghar se kaan par rakh kar qalam nikle

This shows all big names rea free-flowing int their expressions.

There are poets who communicate more to others.

Koi naam pata gar puche to ae qasid bata dena

Takallus daag hai aur ashoko ke dilme rehte hai (Daag)

There are poetries that communicate more to oneself;

Aap to aate rahe khayalon mein bana diye zidko kafeer 

Din-o-majhab aur kya hai baat sabko samzhayi nahin jati

Thus a piece of poetry could become either a connection of one world with another or simple autobiographic expression.

Considering the numbers that are there already in the Ghazali literature, they follow a public opinion. That is when you refer to a populist literature.

…Ae muhobbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya

…Jaane kyun aaj tere naam pe rona aaya ( Shakeel)

However, every poet is different. He has a different psyche, he has a different motivation & he has a different perspective. Although within the quantum of literature that is produced one come across some contradictions. Hence it is ideal for the reader to look at poetry as independent of the poet.

The following lines of Momin are not in the same spirit;

Kyun sune arz muztarab Momin, Sanam aakhir khuda nahi hota

Hae sanam! hae sanam lab pe kyun,Khair hai Momin? Tumhe kya ho gaya?,

It need not be, it won’t be, it should not be. Art is sport played better with unpredictability.On top of it all he may be in most unusual time & space condition in which the poetry is written. It is a given thing that a literary writes for the posterity but he himself lives for the moment. That moment when his thoughts are converted into literature is the moment of reckoning & not when the poetry is read. This is a paradox that no one has been able to resolve. When you write a non-fiction you express stream of thought or may be extend it. But you have lived with it for a sustained period. Poetry being more of fiction is very impulsive. To help resolve this crisis, I feel it is best to use an emotionally intelligent model & say that poet may be very different from the poetry in the time & space you read the poetry. Hence it is better to like or dislike the poetry rather than like or dislike the poet. One simply may not know that persona.

In the spirit of true respect for the beloved there are possibly very few other comparable languages that make a direct comparison & sometimes a direct substitution of God with the beloved. So ‘dair’ & ‘dar’ are brought within the visual distance of human intellect. Hence it could be said that Urdu language especially within the folds of ghazal is an elaborate experience of either describing the pain or lauding the beauty, detailing the journeys including the passage of lonely nights & the upcoming & soft end of bazm or mehfil, upsurge of human ego or its downfall, rejections & dejections, bitter & sweet descriptions, tours & detours & the poetry winds itself generously through the expressions & the experiences of saba, shaam, baam, shab, taqdeer, kismet, naustar, sheesha, sumandar, leher, taj, isnaan, aadmi, tasavvur, khwab, haqeekat, zakhm, dard & what have you!

Ghazal is a layered communication. It is a synthesis & its complexities are manifold considering the interlocutor’s mind set which itself may have many more layers of interception and understanding. It has four major constituents to support the manufacture or the culturing of the thoughts. So here is the phase analysis of the ghazal that would be followed by or that would be in tandem with the horizontal analysis of the poetry. Poetry especially a ghazal follows a grammar or rather a linguistic exuberance that could also be seen from analytical perspective.

Phase I-Mukhada Sher

It is an arousal of the spirit that is best suitable for the main lyrical treat that follows to find a right setting in the mind of the listener. Mukhda sher could be in two differ styles; one that is a prelude to the subject or one that is prelude to the structure in which the ghazal is composed. In a sense it is announcement of what to expect. Since mukhda sher is practiced more during the recital its stage value quotient is exceedingly high. It augurs well for the listening group in the way the ghazalist respects their intellect. It augurs well for the lyricist in the way he creates a ‘first sale’ impression on the audience. It is good beginning for the singer too because he gets a smooth entry into the audience without even having to display his musical skills.

I would like to go to commenting on one of my ghazals; Charagar in details, before treating you with more mukhada shers.

Teg chalakar ho gae khamosh

Zhakm gar ho naya naya koi

Teg (Sword) is supposed to be restless equipment that thrives on a good kill. That is the identity of the sword. It has come to standstill seeing the kill that is being ‘treated’ with that kind of an onslaught. It is fast paced communication where the poet brings a lot of his personal experience & his personal philosophy on how he thinks the innocent neck (first-timer) would affect the sword. The feel of the sher is pity, self-realization, resignation, powerless-ness, withdrawal…Use of the expression ‘zhakhm’ creates a scenic vista that should affect the empathy of all & sundry. Recitation of this sher is done without rhythm to facilitate registration of a very difficult thought. The scenic proportion of this sher is signature autobiographical & that adds to the mood or the situation upfront.

Phase II- Malla

The first paragraph of the ghazal is the actual name & address of the ghazal. Most mallas have an  address; like posting a letter with address there is a popular method of couplets make an arousing start.  They contain expression that addresses one person;

May be a beloved;

Mere mehboob tubhi humwatan hai

Zid ki jagir ka tuhi ek wajud hai

Calling fate;

Ae taqdeer tu aakar ek but kayam kare

Innsano se ab Zidka ji nahi bharata

Calling an opponent;

Ae mere rakeeb tuzhe muhobbat ke sivay kya dun

Gar tu insaan hai to yeh wasiyat ke siva kya dun

Or administrator of durgah

Zahid sharab pine de masjid mein baithkar

Ya phir wo jagah bata de jahan khuda na ho

Or Beauty

Ae husn tu jahan jahan amal ho raha hai

Waha waha aadmi insaan mein badal raha hai

Let us take an example of a word Khudaya! The word has a universal appeal & it would set a trend for creating an environment or the space that would stay till the whole of the couple it read, understood or thought about. 

Now we will look at a first half of the pre-dawn. Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye

When you think of God too being passionate you have created a most dramatic plot of two grossly unequal things being made equal. That would make people stand up or sit straight in expectancy. A point must be made here that irrespective of the poetic beauty of the verses there are speed verses & there are snail verses. The speed verses are very demanding in terms of the listening capabilities of the audience. Snail verses are more obvious types that have simple idiomatic expressions like huzoor, mehboob, nazara, raat, din including prepositions like, word connectives kyun, kaha & common-place verbs like dena, lena, karna etc…

It would be well served to break off to another discussion on how verses move into the meaning. Depending on the speed one could see two ends of the spectrum.

Snail Verse

Karte hai baat wo aur kya karte hai

Baithe hai saamne aur kya karte hai (Anonymous)

One might think this is waste of the precious time of the listener!

It is imperative that poet is also born out of the human flesh & hence his natural behavior will somewhere or the other show up on his poetry. But over a period of few verses a poet also qualifies himself in the mind of the audience & he would go on creating a certain niche. My idea is not to dethrone anyone but to say that there is lot of demand for these kinds of verses as is evident in the way film songs are made these days.  Modern films have taken for granted that verses are not understood easily & hence they pack it with a lot of noise that fills up the space. In that sense generous use of instruments will create more music & scant use of instruments would open up possibilities of the verses being registered.

Speed Verse

Partave khoor se hai sabnaam ko wafa ki taalim

Mai bhi hun ek enayat ki nazar hone tak (Galib)

Or

Fana ho jayenge kitne is mawwaze-e-tufaan mein

Par Zid ye thikana gark-e-khana mudam yaad rahega

Or

Jabse dilmein aan base ho Zid ke garaz ki maat puchiye

Kya kya duwaye deta rahe tumko mashhoor hone tak

It will take a lot of effort on part of even a connoisseur of ghazals to really get on with the pace if you are listening to it for the first time. That is why there is a practice on part of the mushaira readers that they repeat the first line of the couple & sometime read the first half of the first couplet three or four times to bring in the effect of an appropriate precinct. In that sense one would also experience some couplets that dramatize more than deliver the meaning.  In the context it must be said that not all meaning is entertainment & not all entertainment has a meaning. Doubtlessly there are many words that offer a sweet music to the ears whether the sense it makes matches with the musical feel or not. I could think of one word ‘ Ma-badoulat’. It is too big a word to connote the meaning ‘Me’. The expression musically is very terse not something that would place the meaning ‘Me’ or ‘I‘ in the mind of the listener. There are others like ‘shirin’ that has the same context that is created by the sound of the words. That is to say that there are verses that seek to offer more thought via sounds than through the meaning & there are others that offer more from the meaning.

Kitne shirin hai tere lab ke rakib…(Galib) offers a wonderful realization of this theory. Although in the latter half of the couplet the poet expresses more of an angst that makes the couplet little topsy-turvy. But more on this later!

Daawat-e-shirin-e-lab pe mehema baankar aaeye… (Zid) is another example of the beauty of the sounds.

Coming back to Khudaya… Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye…. This is a loud expression of forbearance with God’s untold plan & submission with a tinge of forgiveness. Poetry transcends on the synthesis such as this that offer range of colors, complex thoughts & fine brush strokes.

The second half of the pre-dawn is even more sensitive. Ishara Karen. It is an exasperating experience for all living beings that the dead & the end can come anytime. The poet goes to the next level of humility & spiritual obedience when he says;

(Khudaya jab bhi aapko zid chahiye)…Ishara karein

Mehfil ko muholat de yakayak kaise kinara karein

He is looking at his kith & kin, his fellow beings & his responsibility to complete the self-imposed task of distributing the beauty through his rendition. But he himself shows no regret about anything including losing his ‘company’. The passion of mehfil stuffed with the dispassion the poet shows to himself create an extra-ordinary poignancy that is the soul of any meaningful art.

Coming back to Malla, whereas the mukhda sher has explosive creative possibilities comparatively the malla has more recall value. It is similar experience as announcing the title of your home that you could call a king’s palace, Caesar’s villa, rich man’s enclave or a common man’s hut. I am deliberately giving crude examples to help us get started on the structure. Once this is understood the finer strokes could also be appreciated very easily. Yes, whether one likes it or not, the mallas identifies its audience or qualifies its audience quite naturally. Thus

Yeh na humari kisma ke wisale yaar hota

Agar aur jite rehete yahi intezaar hota

is a surprising choice of malla by Ghalib considering the complex poetry & sudden change in the class of poetry over the following couplets. The malla looks relatively more a common-class poetry whereas the following couplet & there on

Koi mere dilse puche key eh teer-neem kash ko

Yeh khalish kahase hoti jo jigar ke paar hota

is absolutely high end poetry that delivers a verbal treat, scenic beauty as much as the ‘falsafa-e-noor’

(the light of philosophy) majestically.

Since couplets over couplets have each distinctive character ghazal becomes a layered communication. It goes beyond the realm on one side but it creates such a vast space that someone in the audience is likely to get affected by something that is said by the poet that is either intentional or explorative. That creates a sense of personal communication because that communication is discreet & hence it looks personal.

Coming back to teg chalkar…

The malla is

Charagar ho koi sukun-e-kabil

Kyun samazhdar huwa kare koi

is a multi-storey communication. One that says a good doctor makes me free to create more scars on my body. The other one that says ‘God is so forgiving that I can afford to stay innocent all the time & make mistakes without a worry.’ If this is treated as ‘insaniyat ki shayari’ (the discussion comes up later) there is a beautiful mother-child substance in the poetry that says a child would never grow up as long as mother is there to care for him. Thus Charagar is no more a fixed nomenclature & is expansive vertical treatment creates a multi-story communication. In any mushaira there are people looking up to the poet in awe & clapping & there are others who are all lost in the self-thinking. I think this where a sustainable difference between entertainment & engagement comes to the fore.

Take another example

Zid le ke chale taqdeer-e-badan ko, abke jo bichde phir kab mile ho

The word ‘bichdana’ implies separation from the beloved. Be it so because the entire poetry can be understood on that pretext easily. But a closer look at that brings out a new thought that says, ‘It is my great fortune that I wear a human body now. If I lose you when is the next chance for wearing this beauty again?’ 

Phase III- Development of Thoughts

Ham bhi kisko puchte ke muhobbat fani kyun hai

Gar jism ban gae ho ruh Zid to phir ye fasla kyun hai

Or

Zid jab bhi naya rang chade akks mita hota hai

Insaan badan badal de par ruh kaha khota hai

Both these mukhdas offer an upstart. However, I myself realize , there is a danger of using this strategy because the ghazhal will go to the next level of thought that might not meet the intellect by & large create a problem of comprehension & intelligibility.

Ghazal is ruthless in terms of its capability to dwell upon varied subjects that afford metaphoric transcending & perpetual comparisons. That is why every couplet as it comes, arouses different ideas although falling within the same generic thought. There are poets who write all couplets independently & assemble later within one tile. There are others who write within the given title. The method used would show up on the vibrancy of the ghazal later.

Sequential couplets

(I wrote this ghazal without lifting pen)

Le ke chale taqdeer-e-badan ko, abke jo bichde phir kab tum mile ho

Sar mera aazad hai gar chahte ho, mile wo jahan zameer-e-watan ho

Aaj kuch kehte nahi badkimari par, kab ke be-qadr ho kabke jale ho

Kaise kaise aap jalwa-e-kamat ho, paas aaye to saamne kayamat ho

Abke yeh karsaazi kaam na aayegi, khud-b-khud aap khudi se darte ho

Kalin par biche daag koi khoon nahi, arman chhod ab khwaish se darte ho

Khoon-b-khoon pighal rakeek huwa, gazab-e-ashiqee; marne se darte ho

Teri zuba-dar-zuba karaamad hogi, khaufe namabar hai wajud se darte ho

Tera gunah hai aah ko churana, kayamat dekh li ab kazi se darte ho

Safa-e-kalb le chale safine nahane, Daryadili-e-sabat aur rawa karte ho

Tum to kar gaye kare-numaya, Zid kyunkar ab khushi se darte ho

Assorted couplets

Yeh na thi hamari kismet to me is a case of assorted ghazal.

I will like to talk about following ghazal;

Jise is rut me marna hai zid wo bahaar aaye

Aaj tak berukhi thi ab zara wo muskuraye

There is no sequencing possible in the following couplets because they are independent & they have been written in different time zones & in different mind spaces. These couplets have been selected to be within one frame because every couplet uses the same method of creating ironies.

Diware ret ki hoti hai isharon se pakki

Wo fareb hi sahi par ek bar bekhumar aaye

Ilm gar tha unko ke ye sari fuzul batain hai

Hale-dil kuch aisa karon mera gurur wapas aaye

Tijarat nakaam ho aur der baad muhobbat aaye

Accha hai dilki daulat akhir kuch to kaam aaye

Bas yahi khatm tumaar-e-dastan waqt-e-mehroom ho

koshish ho bhulaneki to samjhoo Zid bahut yaad aaye 

However, such ghazals make tremendous demands on the audience & hence these get relegated or elevated to ‘only for connoisseur’ status. In terms of emotional intensity the vibrancy of ghazal makes it more diverse an experience compared to the sequential poetry that makes deep inroads that keep becoming deeper. Whereas the spherical journey creates a vertigo effect on the listener the deep driving sequencing could create equally a feeling of weightless in free fall.

Phase IV-Makta Sher

This is an end game. Since this couplet carries the name of the poet, obviously the poet is expected to put his best in these lines. However, it may not be seen with a great deal of regularity. I personally feel there have been many instances where the makta has been wasted. But yes it is possible to take the poetic journey to new level using makta.

Galibi shakl surat phir tuzhe dikhane aaye

Tareekh dekh kaise mashhoor zamane aaye

This ghazal has following Makta;

Apne nashemanse Zidko muntakil karne aaye

Parwar-digar muzhe jannat-e-khwab dikhane aaye

Or

Aaj bhi kehte hai muzhse dilme aana chahiye

Mausame gulzar mein ek ghar basana chahiye

This ghazal has following makta

Gubaar sang daude hai zarra, khak mein kurban hai

Waqt puche zid dubara kya khak-e-hasrat chahiye

Or

Par yeh bhi bhul maat jana ke zid tum insa ho

khayal-e-shabnam-taazgi mein tarikh bhul na jana

Or

Akhir kaar pesh aaye bade sangdili se wo

Zid Justju to thik hai par ye aarzoo kya hai

Or

Aap to Zid pehlelhi mar gaye the

Tareekh dekh kafan sara jala dala

Analysis of the literary strategy would lead us to looking further into every couplet & see the differential order.

Pre-dawn-That part of the couplet that is merely creates an awakening of the mind, creates the color on the horizon a kind of expectancy that something is going to rise here & change the space.

 Yun to rah chale insaan taqdeerse sambhal jaye hai …

The poet pretends to have a solution for something that troubles everyone. There is invitation to have a close look at the same. In this context it must be said that of all the methods of qualifying a good verse vs. not so good verse, a good verse is the one which open the listener’s mind, whereas a not so good verse somehow tries to force itself on to the listener’s ears. But indulgence in a ghazal is expected to be a quiet experience & hence any attempt to force the poetry on to the listener would turn out to be a negative experience.

Or

Khauf unhe bhi hai zid ki laptomein khud jal na jaye…

Choo liya dilse daman ko harj kya hai…looks like a bold enterprise; ‘bebak-shayari’. But it is followed by a peace maker proposal; ‘tajwij-e-ashyar’ that says;

Mai gar huun gunah to hawa kya hai

Dawn-It clears all doubts about what is going to happen & actually delivers the light metaphorically; a complete content along with the context. Majority of the dramatics that either lead to exasperation of the listener’s intellect or catharsis of the emotions, feeling of awe, alas… are born out of the finely laid plot of the couplet.

Yun to rah chale insaan taqdeerse sambhal jaye hai …

Chalte chalte kuch raah kismatse bachaye rakhiye

Or

khauf unhe bhi hai zid ki laptomein khud jal na jaye

Aur uski kabr mein aakar wo bhi kahi so na jaye

Most couplets worth a recall are supposed to be sensitively meaningful but that is not all. A beauty of the artifact like ghazal is that it must be brought out in the right context. Sometimes a poet may tend to deliver a negative feel about life but poetry is about the masses & hence it must be looked at from a populist understanding of a theory or experience. If majority of the people by large have cribs about life that is the given universe & not every couple could be rebellion to affect a sea change in the human perspective.

A general context of the mushaira is that it is for mass consumption. The poet has a chance to invite people on his home territory & serve his best recipes to the invitees but by & large he has to be cognizant of the mass psyche. That is how the mass gets its identity & that is important. There is a caution however. If all the poetry is delivered in expectation of people it would turn about to be an indulgence in mediocrity & soon the poetic sheen would be lost.

Climaxes & Anti-climaxes

There are verses that use simple pretexts like husn-e-amal kiye

Then the verses take a rapid plunge into another subject that opens up in the following lines;

Husn-e-amal kiye  waqt bada zalim nikla

Subah ho gae lije zid ek aftaab aur nikla

Or

Zid jise is rut me marna hai wo bahaar aaye

Aaj tak berukhi thi ab zara wo muskuraye

Or

Aaiye zid kuch sharafat ki batain karen

Chalte chalte kuch fareb ki batain Karen

Or

Zindgi tu kuch sawar ja rahe aakhir mil gae

Hosh aa jaye Zid to samjho bekhudi bhi chahiye

Or

Wo sunate rahenge aur hum adab aur khamoshi se sunte rahenge

Zid tu kya kuch keh gaya, likh gaya  tere marne ki yahi soorat hogi

Anti-Climax

Aaiye chooke zid wafa-e-rasm purjor Karen

Has an anticlimax…

Hawae laakar jalneme kuch rahat to karen

Aur phir lamha-e-chamansaz aaya

rehguzar khwab mein badal dala

Has an anti-climax

Sangdili dastan-e-khamoshi aise bani

yeh asar ke humko but bana dala

 Khuda haafeez!