patta patta boota boota: Drama Mirza Ghalib
Editor’s comment: On the sad occasion of the mass killings in Norway and the bombing of the official buildings by a Norwegian fascist, who stands against social democracy, democratic values and is a committed crusader against Muslims and the Muslim world while being a devotee of Zionist world-view and Israeli policies, I reproduce the following you tube video.
The setting of the scene is in mid-nineteenth century Delhi. It was just before the British took possession of the whole of India. The major revolt against the farangi rule (common name for the British foreigners then) took place in 1857. The British prevailed and the atrocities they committed defy description.
The minstrel here is singing a poem by the great Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810). The greatest Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869, in white robes in the drama) acknowledges the poetic genius of Mir.
It is a sad lyric. Only those who know Urdu or Hindi will know the deep pain it conveys in a poetic form.
My own personal agony and the pain I have felt on the massacres in Norway are best represented in this poem.
