Murder at the Mushaira

by Raza Mir

‘Andaleeb is the songbird, the bulbul. You see, beta, in Urdu poetry, the relationship between the andaleeb and the sayyaad or the bird-snarer is a beloved trope....’

But remember, I only commit sins against God, never against you.’

‘Muddat hui hai yaar ko mehmaan kiye hue, Josh-e qada se bazm chiraaghan kiye hue.’ It has been a while my friend, do accept my invite; with the tumult of wine let us brighten tonight.

‘Let us just say that neither of us has forgotten everything that did not happen.’

A realized expectation becomes banal, but a desire unconsummated gives life colour and heft. Sometimes, an unfulfilled promise stretches our being, makes it vast, and fills it with personality. Forgive me my trespasses, and I will forget your injustices.

Delhi is a place where one will soon need to make a choice between bread and honour.

Over time, love blossomed, for after all, what is love but the sharing of secrets?

I refuse to do one thing, and she asks me to do two!’

for the gaze of superiors, even if benevolent, is often the most double-edged of swords.

Hoon garmi-e nishaat-e tasavvur se naghma-sanj Main andaleeb-e gulshan-e na-aafareeda hoon

Suffused with the warmth of my creative powers I sing I am the songbird of gardens that await creating.

‘He arrived at the gathering, that’s all Mir remembers; for after that, all lamps lost their light.’

‘Ba-sher-o sukhan majlis aaraastand/Nishastand-o guftand-o barkhaastand.’ They enlivened the gathering with poems galore; and now we depart, the evening is no more.

‘We are not the midwives of history, much as we may wish. We are merely specks of flotsam riding the waves of destiny. And time is a strange dimension. It yields different results depending on the horizons we choose. Perhaps the annals of the future will record that moment not as a time when the Angrez finally gained control over India, but as a precise point when their rule became irrevocably illegitimate. They rule bodies today, but maybe that was the moment when they lost minds and hearts forever.’