Boston Hindi-Urdu Speakers and Learners

Join us for lunch at Depth 'N' Green as we read and discuss one of Mir Taqi Mir's best known ghazals, "Hasti Apni Habab Ki Si Hai" ("My Existence Is Like a Water Bubble's"). Use the dropdown menu at the link to switch from the Romanized version to Hindi or Urdu scripts. Mariyam will provide printed versions with inline glossaries at the meetup. If you have any issues accessing the poem, please DM Mariyam. We hope you enjoy these linked renditions of the ghazals by the legendary Farida Khanum, and the possibly even more legendary Mehdi Hassan.

Location: Depth 'N' Green. Best bets for parking are to grab a space right in front of the restaurant, at 7 Broad Canal Way, Cambridge 02142, or if nothing's available, there are always metered openings around the corner near the river on Main Street, headed into Cambridge (which is only accessible via Memorial Drive headed toward Cambridge). Or take the T to Kendall Square/MIT.

Language for the Meetup: This Meetup will be conducted in Hindi, Urdu, Urdu-Hindi, Hinglish, and Urdlish. If you can have a basic literature discussion in any of those languages, without resorting to pure English (and with a little help as necessary), feel free to attend. Deep knowledge of Urdu/Hindi poetry isn't required--we will read and interpret the poem together, so the poetry-curious are welcome!

Meeting Format
11:30-11:40: Intros, greetings, ordering food.
11:40-11:50: Mariyam will help place the poet in historical and cultural context. Attendees are encouraged to share what they know of the poet. We also welcome questions throughout the discussion!
11:50-12:00: Read through the poem.
12:00-12:30: We'll go over the literal meanings of the difficult words and cultural references in each sher (couplet), and then make our own personal meaning*,* sharing with the group if you want to. Meaning could be literary, intellectual, experiential, emotional, historical, cultural, etc. We hope each attendee will begin to develop a personal relationship with the ghazal.
12:30-1:00: Open conversation, either freeform chats about themes from the poem, or about other matters entirely.

About the poet: Aficionados of Urdu poetry are mostly divided into two camps, one insisting that Mir Taqi Mir (born in Agra in 1723 and died in Lucknow 1810) was the greatest Urdu poet, and the other asserting that honor belongs to Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869). We read one of Ghalib's gems for our last meetup, and this meetup will feature one of Mir's, so you can start forming your own opinion (if you don't have one already)! Ghalib acknowledged that Mir might be as good as himself in two famous couplets (couplet 1, couplet 2), making Mir the only poet Ghalib ever praised that way.

Very little is known about Mir's life, beyond the fact that he spent his young adulthood in Dehli, and moved to the court of Lucknow after Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali's successive ransacking and destruction of Dehli.

Thankfully, Mir leaves a substantial body of work--six diwans (anthologies)--for us to savor!