Ghazal

By Shahzeb Athar

Ghazal
After Umar

A sense of wonder made plain, at Jamia
Walls of resistance covered in vain, at Jamia

Libraries shattered, dissent stifled
and then the oppressed, blamed, at Jamia

the body of revolution must hold space for empathy
so witness a willed resistance, aflame, at Jamia

My dreams are haunted by your not-being
What you left behind we did reclaim at Jamia

Architect and poet, Shahzeb Athar is currently studying Architectural and Cultural Heritage at Dessau, far away from his Beloved Delhi. When not working on his thesis, he is planning (read daydreaming about) walks in Delhi, or waxing poetic about whatever seemingly insignificant thing he lays eyes upon. He refers to himself as a Graveyard of Memories, but when asked to describe himself resorts to Ghalib couplets.

Social Handles:
Instagram: @atharshahzeb

Subscribe to our newsletter To Recieve Updates

    The Latest
    • Matchbox by Usawa October‘25 Issue

      This edition of Matchbox by Usawa explores the patterns, customs, and structures

    • The Intimate Affair Of Mortality And Disgust

      A haunting meditation on death’s intimacy, despair, and allure

    • The Room Of A Parallel World

      Sohini Sen’s The Dandelions Have It blends nature, mind, and oneness

    • The Book of Death

      A child’s surreal grief: shame, scream, and haunted theatrical silence

    You May Also Like
    • Three Poems By Sekhar Banerjee

      Memory Icicles hang like fingers and knives from the coniferous trees

    • Three Poems By Ko Ko Thett

      Underappreciated by those to whom all herbs, plants, roots and tubers

    • About Tanka Thumri and KHA In Conversation with Kala Ramesh

      The Forest I Know is Kala Ramesh’s in the genre of the Tanka

    • Those Bombay Sundays by Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

      My father woke up his usual ‘early’ ,‘Seize the day’, he would say