Habib jalib biography

Had I passed away last year

These sorrows too would have ended last year

The hands raised in enquiry are now paralyzed with fear

My patrons were not like this last year

— Habib Jalib, On My Birthday, 1975

If the Urdu language has actually given birth to any people’s poet after Nazeer Akbarabadi, then he is Habib Jalib, who was born 90 years ago on March 24.

Like Nazeer, he too was a people’s man, his lifestyle; manner of thinking and feeling; his values, affections and hatreds were of the people. He translates the sorrows, pains, wishes and hopes of the people in their own language.

Thousands and millions of people adore Jalib and become uncontrollably emotional while listening to his verses; their adoration and madness is not unreasonable.

The crime of Prometheus, the hero of Greek mythology, was that he had taught man the use of fire; and in so doing, he revealed a divine secret to men.

For this crime, the gods had Prometheus tied to a rock, where a vulture would eat away