If it wasn't for Ghalib, I wouldn't be a poet: Gulzar

Mumbai, Dec 29 (IANS) Remember the television serial on Mirza Ghalib that Gulzar made in 1988? Twenty years later the Urdu poet remains as strongly imprinted on the mind of the veteran Bollywood lyricist as ever.

Proof of it lies in the fact that on the occasion of Ghalib's 200th birthday Sunday Gulzar participated in the annual candlelight march in honour of the peerless poet in Delhi.

'It's an annual ritual started by Pavan Kumar Varma who has researched intensely on Ghalib. Every year on Ghalib's birthday we Ghalib followers march with candles from the Town Hall in Delhi to Ghalib miyan's home at Gali Qasim Jaan,' Gulzar told IANS.

'Remembering Mirza Ghalib on his birth anniversary is the least we can do. Do you know his house had been converted into a coal depot until Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji stepped in to rescue the monument from doom. Now Ghalib's home is a museum and a shrine which we visit every time on his birth anniversary. If it wasn't for Ghalib, I wouldn't be a poet,' he added.