There are feelings so strong but impossible to express at times. Sometimes lack of words and sometimes lack of courage leaves one helpless and end up burying those feelings deep inside.

Only a few are born writers, capable enough to express what is felt and rarely expressed. And then there are poets, born once in centuries with the ability to put every human emotion in a way that strikes the right chord every time.

Once upon a time a man lived in a dingy house, made of small red bricks, with a pen in his one hand and a vintage hookah in the other, he penned down his life and feelings. His deep yet simple writings magically touch the heart of every single reader. Beauty of his words, thoughts and use of Urdu language in his immortal creations is one of the priceless treasures Indian literature has and will ever have.

Mirza Asadullah Baig Ghalib says it the best about desires and dreams. They never end, like an active volcano always has burning lava inside.

“Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle
Bohat niklay mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle…”

Thousands of desires, each worth dying for…many of them I have realized…yet I yearn for more…

And when he talks about love, he says,

“Ishq par zor nahi hai ye vo aatish ‘Ghalib’
ki lagaaye na lage aur bujhaaye na bane”

There is no control over love, it is a fire…it can neither be ignited nor extinguished…

He wandered and lived in the thin alleys of Chandni Chowk, situated in Gali Qasim Jaan, his house known as Ghalib Haveli is a museum now.

With the essence of old Delhi, Ghalib’s writings take one into the magical world of emotions, thoughts and long lost feelings. He wandered in those alleys and his thoughts wandered everywhere to finally reside on a piece of paper which has been curated and, is now a precious and one of the most attractive elements of this museum.

His poems, ghazals, Qasida, Rubai scribbled in striking Urdu script on those faded and pale old pieces of paper can make a bibliophile’s heart skip a beat in a single glance.

Dingy yet mesmerizing, with dim yellow light beaming out from old lamps on the ceiling illuminate the walls to glorify Ghalib’s couplets written on them. Not only the ambience is delightful the words pour in the magic to leave one mesmerized.

Readers, Ghalib fans and followers and those who have been clueless about who Ghalib is and what he does, all are left spellbound and all of them fall in love with what he has written in his life span.

Empathy and escape, dreams and reality, attachment and detachment, life and death, hurt and love, Ghalib says it all.

Compilation of his work is available in almost every language. As they say, feelings and emotions do not need a language; in fact they themselves are a language.

December 27 every year, is celebrated as Ghalib’s birth anniversary with recitation of his ghazals and poems at Ghalib Haveli. Grab a book or surf the internet to dive into the love for literature and for the love of Ghalib.

As he describes the pain and pleasure of love,

“Yeh ishq nahi aasan bas yun samajh lijiye
aag ka dariya hai aur doob ke jana hai”

This love is not easy, it is a river of fire and in order to cross it we have to dive in it.