Koi Ummeed Bar Nahin Aati - Begum Akhtar
Can we all agree ghazals have the power to play with our emotions and really make us feel things? Begum Akhtar is definitely one of my favorite ghazal singers and I just recently found her singing this one. It’s a Mirza Ghalib ghazal.
Mirza Ghalib was a classical Urdu and Persian poet from India during British colonial rule. During his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he wrote of. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted and sung in many different ways by different people. He is considered, in South Asia, to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Ghalib today remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also amongst diaspora communities around the world.
