Hyderabad: Cities around the world have gone into lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, also announced 21-day nationwide complete lockdown on March 23. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on March 24 announced night curfew from 7 pm to 6 am, to restrict people’s movement on the roads. Stressing the need for social distancing to contain the spread of virus, PM Modi had said unless India’s 1.3 billion people practised social distancing, and the “chain of its spread not broken” within these 21 days, the coronavirus outbreak could push the country back by 21 years, and several families would be devastated forever. Health experts have also suggested, no hugs, no handshakes, to protect each other from the deadly virus.
This situation has reminded many ghazal lovers, of the couplets penned down by Basheer Badr. Though he wrote the ghazal couplets long back and he depicted general societal tendency but the couplets seem to fit in the current scenario due to lockdown and coronavirus scare. As a result the video is being widely shared on social media.
He wrote:
yūñhī be-sabab na phirā karo koī shaam ghar meñ rahā karo
vo ġhazal kī sachchī kitāb hai use chupke chupke paḌhā karo
koī haath bhī na milā.egā jo gale miloge tapāk se
ye na.e mizāj kā shahr hai zarā fāsle se milā karo