Chand Nigal Gayi

"‘I am a greedy poet. I keep munching life all the time. Sweet, sour and bitter moments – whatever falls from the time orbiting over my head, I keep swallowing. A shiny moment that I swallowed once was the moon, Saba’ – Gulzar Gulzar is arguably India’s best-known contemporary poet. He occupies a unique place in Indian literature as a progressive poet in a popular culture. Without compromising on literary merit or content, his poetry appeals to a cross-section of readers – a popularity that is perhaps moulded by his ability to convey the most exalted thought in an accessible idiom. In I Swallowed the Moon: The poetry of Gulzar, Saba Bashir looks at what makes Gulzar the poet he is.