About us
We gather in person in the Boston area to read, discuss, and -- most importantly -- revel in the beauty of Hindi-Urdu poetry in all its guises, from old masters like Mirza Ghalib and Mir Taqi Mir to modern Bollywood lyricists.
Our meetings are best suited for those with intermediate / advanced proficiency or higher. Our goal is to speak in Hindi and Urdu as much as possible, while being supportive of language learners who might need to use some English. If you can understand about half the words in the session's poem (we always post those in advance), we encourage you to attend at least once to gauge if the group is a fit for you.
Knowledge of, or exposure to, Hindi-Urdu poetry is not required or assumed, so the poetry-curious are very welcome!
While it is natural to make friends through the group, and for friendships to extend beyond the group meetings, please keep in mind that this is not a dating / singles group.
Upcoming events
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Read & Discuss Mir's Ghazal 'Ulti Ho Gain Sab Tadbiren' at The Foundry
The Foundry Cambridge, 101 Rogers St Cambridge, MA 02142, Cambridge, MA, USJoin us at The Foundry, Black Room (Shop 5), for a brown bag lunch (you are welcome to bring a packed lunch and/or non-alcoholic beverage), as guest facilitator Yusuf leads our reading and discussion of one of Mir Taqi Mir’s iconic ghazals, Ulti Ho Gain Sab Tadbiren. You can use the dropdown menu on Rekhta to switch from the romanized version to Hindi or Urdu scripts. We will provide printed versions with embedded glossaries at the Meetup. If you have any issues accessing the poem, please DM Mariyam. You may also enjoy a rendition of the ghazal by Begum Akhtar.
Facilitator Yusuf on Mir:
Thamthe thamthe thamaingay aansoo / Rona hai, kuch hansee nahin!
(Tears will take time to stop / This is melancholy, not mirth).Khuda-e-Sukhan (god of poetry) Mir Taqi Mir has always been my favorite Urdu poet. His poetry encompasses the deepest reflections on the human condition, his woes and ordeals authentic,
and his seeming disillusionment with society and humanity extremely palpable and heartfelt. I feel deeply that ‘our sweetest songs tell of saddest thought’, or in poet Maulana Hasrat Mohani's words shīrīni-e-nasīm hai soz-o-gudāz-e-'mīr' (Mir's tender sadness is like the sweet morning zephyr), and so Mir affects my heart and sensibilities like no other. I look forward to sharing his work with all of you!About the location: The Foundry is a community event space in Cambridge, and we will be in the Black Room (Shop 5).
- The Black Room is wheelchair accessible.
- There is parking on the surrounding streets: Rogers Street, Bent Street, Third Street, Fifth Street, among others. There are two accessible parking spots on Rogers Street in front of the main entrance.
- The building is half a mile from the Kendall MIT stop, where you can catch the red line and 64, 68, 85, CT2, 64, 68, and 85 buses.
- The building is also half a mile from Lechmere, where you can catch the green line and 69, 80, 87, and 88 buses.
Who should attend:
Our meetings are best suited for those with intermediate-advanced proficiency or higher. Our goal is to speak in Hindi and Urdu as much as possible, while being supportive of language learners who might need to use some English. If you can understand about half the words in the session's poem, we encourage you to attend at least once to gauge if the group is a fit for you.
Prior knowledge of Hindi-Urdu poetry isn't assumed. We will read and interpret the poem together, so the poetry-curious are especially welcome!
Meeting Format
11:30-11:40: Intros, greetings.
11:40-11:50: Facilitator will help place the poet in historical and cultural context. Attendees are encouraged to share what they know of the poet.
11:50-12:00: Read through the poem.
12:00-12:45: We'll go over the literal meanings of difficult words and cultural references in each sher (couplet), and then make our own personal meaning, sharing with the group as desired. Meaning could be literary, intellectual, experiential, emotional, historical, cultural, etc. We hope each attendee develops a personal relationship with the ghazal.
12:45-1:15: Open conversation (either freeform chats about themes from the poem, or about other matters entirely).
1:15-1:30: Restore room, farewell.About the poet: Aficionados of Urdu poetry are 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 Delhi, and moved to the court of Lucknow after Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali's successive ransacking and destruction of Delhi.
Thankfully, Mir leaves a substantial body of work -- six diwans (anthologies) -- for us to savor!
Until we meet, we leave you with the following sher:
apnā hī haath sar pe rahā apne yaañ sadā
mushfiq koī nahīñ hai koī mehrbāñ nahīñ(I have to stroke my own head for comfort, always
I have no friend, no supporter)5 attendees
Past events
1
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Members
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