With Meer, Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz, to name only four, the firmament of Urdu poetry is truly star – studded, with numerous starlets strewn around. Ghalib has not only a pride of place among them his stature is growing with every passing decade. He got?ess than his due in his own time. He was less than his due in his own time. He was ahead of his age and his contemporaries failed to comprehend him fully. But it was really when India (and Pakistan) celebrated his ?rst death centenary in 1969 that he was rehabilitated as a great poet that he is. There has been no?ooking back after that. As with other great poets?ike Shakespeare, one discovers a new wealth of meaning every time one reads him and different people find different meaning, suiting their need and situation. In other words, great poets are inexhaustible in their appeal and meaning and do not get dated even when they mirror their times most effectively. Ghalib’s writings are not onlyan authentic account of his own age, his poetry transcends his times and situation. It is universal in its appeal’