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पत्थर के जिगर वालों ग़म में वो रवानी है

Patthar Ke Jigar Walon Gham Mein Wo Rawani Hai

Bashir Badr

1 min read 7 versesSorrow Grief Water

7 verses · ~1 min

पत्थर के जिगर वालों ग़म में वो रवानी है ख़ुद राह बना लेगा बहता हुआ पानी है

फूलों में ग़ज़ल रखना ये रात की रानी है इस में तेरी ज़ुल्फ़ों की बे-रब्त कहानी है

एक ज़हन-ए-परेशाँ में वो फूल सा चेहरा है पत्थर की हिफ़ाज़त में शीशे की जवानी है

क्यों चांदनी रातों में दरिया पे नहाते हो सोये हुए पानी में क्या आग लगानी है

इस हौसला-ए-दिल पर हम ने भी कफ़न पहना हँस कर कोई पूछेगा क्या जान गवानी है

रोने का असर दिल पर रह रह के बदलता है आँसू कभी शीशा है आँसू कभी पानी है

ये शबनमी लहजा है आहिस्ता ग़ज़ल पढ़ना तितली की कहानी है फूलों की ज़बानी है

इति

Rasa: Karuna
Stanzas: 7
Lines: 14
Reading time: ~1 min
Form: Ghazal
Metre: ghazal
Rhyme: AA BA CA DA EA FA GA

The poem evokes a somber and melancholic atmosphere, grounded in the fluidity of grief where sorrow is likened to a persistent, self-carving stream. A painting of this scene would capture a moonlit riverbank at night, featuring a solitary figure juxtaposed against cold, unyielding stone, with imagery of tangled tresses, translucent tears, and the fragile, glass-like nature of youth under protection. The artistic tone is deeply elegiac and intimate, blending the ephemeral beauty of a night-blooming jasmine with the heavy symbolism of a shroud, ultimately suggesting a narrative of vulnerability caught between stoic preservation and inevitable emotional dissolution. The shifting metamorphosis of tears—from crystalline glass to fluid water—anchors the work in a reflective, karuna-saturated meditation on the persistence of pain.

पत्थर के जिगर वालों ग़म में वो रवानी है (Patthar Ke Jigar Walon Gham Mein Wo Rawani Hai), by Bashir Badr runs to 14 lines across 7 stanzas, set as Two-line stanzas (Sher). Its governing rasa is Karuna, shaded by Shringara. The metre is ghazal. Rhyme falls as AA BA CA DA EA FA GA.

It belongs to the 1935 · 1999 span of Bashir Badr's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for दुख की शक्ति और उसका स्वतः मार्ग बनाना and प्रेम में संवेदनशीलता और समर्पण की कहानी. 2 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Lady in the Moonlight: Drenched in a serene, nocturnal melancholy, the painting evokes an atmosphere of profound introspection and quiet solitude. A young woman draped in traditional attire sits gracefully upon a rocky riverbank, her gaze…

Words worth pausing on

रवानी: प्रवाह या बहाव
बे-रब्त: असंगत या बिखरी हुई

Threads

Sorrow Grief Water Tears

The Poet

बशीर बद्र

Bashir Badr

1935 · 1999

Bashir Badr achieved something exceedingly rare in the modern literary landscape by bringing the Urdu ghazal out of the exclusive courts of intellectuals and directly into the hearts of the common people. Born Syed Muhammad Bashir in 1935 in Ayodhya, he cultivated a poetic voice that used the simplest, most everyday Hindustani vocabulary to express the deepest nuances of love, heartbreak, and social tragedy. His couplets are universally recognized and frequently quoted by individuals who may never have read a formal poetry book. His life was marked by profound personal tragedy, most notably when his home and decades of literary archives were burned to ashes during the communal riots of 1992 in Meerut. Yet, instead of responding with hatred, he channeled his grief into verses that pleaded for communal harmony and human empathy. Honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri in 1999, he later relocated to Bhopal. Bashir Badr stands as a living legend whose ghazals are permanently etched into the cultural memory of the subcontinent.