Urdunama Podcast| Reading Ghalib’s ‘Koi Umeed Bar Nahin Aati’

A close reading of Ghalib’s ‘Koi Umeed Bar Nahin Aati’, where ego, failure, and self-awareness collide.

In this episode of Urdunama, Fabeha Syed turns to Mirza Ghalib’s ‘Koi Umeed Bar Nahin Aati’

Photo: The Quint

Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, better known as Mirza Ghalib, continues to loom large over Urdu poetry because of his rare ability to say the most complicated things with disarming clarity. His verses do not tidy up emotion or offer easy consolation; instead, they linger in uncertainty, contradiction, and self-scrutiny. It is this quality that makes Ghalib feel endlessly contemporary.

In this episode of Urdunama, host Fabeha Syed turns to one of Ghalib’s most well-known ghazals, ‘Koi Umeed Bar Nahin Aati’, to enter the poet’s inner world.

The reading reveals a voice that is acutely aware of its own failures and limitations, sometimes even indulgent of them, but never unaware. Ghalib’s ego is not something he hides or defends; it is something he examines, almost clinically, as part of being human.

The ghazal is not merely about disappointment, but about the clarity that comes from recognising one’s own contradictions and desires. Ghalib does not seek redemption in denial; he finds meaning in acknowledgement.

This episode builds on Urdunama’s earlier conversation on Ghalib, where Dr Maaz Bin Bilal unpacked ‘Ye na thi hamari qismat ke visaal-e-yaar hota’.

Tune in.