Ghazals: A Collection of Ghazals in English

Reading Mehfil-e-Ghazal is an experience in itself. You feel the full force of the author's emotions--love, compassion, and friendship--and cannot help but be swept away in the gushing waves.For those unfamiliar with the concept of the ghazal, the author has painstakingly provided a fascinating history of the poetic form. He calls it a "brief" history but I feel it is complete in that it enables the reader to appreciate the ghazal collection all the more. I did not know so much thought and effort went into composing a ghazal.Did you know ghazals are composed in English as well apart from the traditional languages of Persian, Urdu, and Arabic? Yes, historically ghazals have been composed in English as well although I feel they do not hold a candle to the Urdu creations because of the restraints of the language.Illustrated with reproductions of oil paintings and hand-drawn sketches, the collection is a worthy companion for the reader who wants to take a few quiet moments for themselves and reflect within.I loved the evocative pieces "It was not meant to be," "Circle of love," "Art of Stealing," "Stony Path of Life," and "Forgotten Dreams." Each ghazal speaks directly to your heart and you become one with the author's narrative.Mehfil-e-Ghazal is for those who want to nourish their finer feelings and take a dip into a whirlwind of sensory delight.

The author has expressed his love for ghazals very beautifully. He has penned down so much information about the ghazals. I liked the way, he has written the book.He started with some information and then jotted down the ghazal poems.An ideal Ghazal should have the five segments in five stanzas/couplets. Ghazals are mostly sung in a "Mushaira".Many poets have attempted to translate the Ghazals of Rumi, Ghalib, and Hafiz into English.My fav lines from the book::"Gentle touch of her fingers on my skin,Shivers like a bird, sweet angle of my life,The aura of her smile, her presence heaven sent."What happened to those dreams?Those golden days of mine.Days of laughter and happiness, those forgotten dreams of mine."I loved all his poetry. The poems are about love, pain, and the pathos of life. My most fav is Forgotten dreams, missing friends, and the angle of my life, it was not meant to be.

A Ghazal is a type of poem that is constructed with couplets, repeated words, and rhyming words. This form originated in Persia in the seventh century. For centuries these Ghazals have become a part of singing and poetry culture. One of the fascinating things I could understand is that Ghazals are also written in English and Arabic. In a broader sense, it can be deduced that a Ghazal is also a poetry form. Author Dr.Shankar Kashyap is an artist and a poet too. His previous book poetry book, Musings of a Romantic, is a collection of poems mostly talking about love and is lovely to read. Likewise, this book also contains poems, couplets and verses. Almost every page includes an illustration in black and white, a design piece, or the author’s paintings. This makes the book look more beautiful. In total, there are 38 poems, and each of the poems oozes love, life, feelings and relationships. One of the poems, A Broken Heart and Sound of your steps, are my favourites. The book is written in simple and elegant language. The book can be picked up by people who like modern poetry with profound themes and romance in particular. There is the philosophy of life and beauty about love in these poems, and they give the readers a chance to ponder and think. Overall, this is a nice book with fine poems.

‘Ghazals: A Collection of Ghazals in English' by Dr. Shankar Kashyap is a wonderful anthology of romantic verses served fresh in high quality English language. As we all know, Ghazals were originally created to spread the aroma of love by Urdu saints. Dr. Kashyap's poems are truly ghazals, capturing the best of its essence in all aspects. Author's strong emotions have made a beautiful way through his poetic words. We would like to wish the author, all the very best for his next book. Readers looking for poetic contents, would land up on the right plane.

Ghazals: A Collection of Ghazals in English written by Shankar Kashyap. This book will come under the poetry genre.I have heard the word ghazal long back in a movie where a hero says a beautiful two-lined poem to the female lead it was beautiful but I didn't know much about that. Once I saw the word Ghazal immediately picked up this book.The book's beauty starts from its cover image and the title. This book will be one of my favorite reads as I love poems that are so rhythmic and short verses and this book brought that perfect read vibe for me. The rhythmic vibe and the word choice are the best in this book and I completely love that.The book's first chapter is explaining what is Ghazal and how it is defined in an apparent detailed manner so it was very useful for the new Ghazal reader. This book has a total number of thirty-six Ghazals poem in it. Each poem has its own beauty and elegance. Every poem is portrayed with a beautiful picture in color and back & white in between that adds an extra beauty to the book. The book has different sets of poems that portray the different emotions and mostly it resonates with topics 'love", but there are also a few ghazals that speak about pain, memories, etc. The language presented in the poems was easy to understand and also it feels exquisite at the same time because it delivers the true emotions perfectly. Each poem was given a title and each content was matched perfectly for its title,  and this is something which I like in this book as it is pretty hard to find in some poetry books these days. Even nonpoetry or new ghazal readers can try this book as it's easy to understand and feels very refreshingly beautiful to read it.