Not at all, I only mean that I am buying the turban, and I will only accept as a gift something that I haven’t asked for. I don’t mean that I won’t accept a present from you. You can’t give a man something that he has asked for a present. A gift, a present, is something you send without being asked. I shan’t accept it until you have told me what it costs. He did not want to be a “ muft khor” or a freeloader. I doubt if a woman shopping for an expensive dress would describe or examine things that minutely.Įven though Ghalib was always short of money and often in debt, he did not want the turban for free. This letter shows Ghalib in a very interesting light – his interest and concern about his appearance and getting exactly the right kind of turban appropriate to his age (he was 51 then) and yet colorful and elegant. See if you can find one, get it for me, and send me by post.” You can probably get something like this quite easily in those parts. The silks in the material must include the colors black, green, blue and yellow. I don’t want one with silver or gold thread in it. At the same time it should be something distinctive and elegant, and finely finished. But it must not be of bright color or a youthful style and it must not have a red border. I want a silk turban, the kind they make in Peshawar and Multan, and which distinguished men in those places wear. Well, it is moth eaten now, and I am without a hat. “You will remember that I had a cap made of kidskin. In a letter to one Jawahir Singh, the son of one of his old friends, Ghalib once wrote: One of his letters shows that he once ordered a Peshawari turban to replace that cap. In real life, however, Ghalib was a witty person full of humor, he didn’t wear a beard all his life - at least not when he was young, and I am not sure if he always wore that cap. This is because of that one portrait of Ghalib that we grew up seeing since schooldays. When we think of Ghalib as a person, invariably the picture that comes to mind is that of an old man, rather emaciated, with drooping shoulders, wearing a white beard, a very somber expression and that tall, rather funny looking cap. I believe we can never have enough of Ghalib.Īdnan’s post was mostly about Ghalib, the poet.

We recently had a post on Ghalib by Adnan Ahmad.

Mirza ghalib poetry