Gulzar to gift Ghalib bust for Delhi museum

Bhagawan Rampure, a sculptor, is very excited about his new assignment to make a bust of famous poet Mirza Ghalib, which was ordered by Ghalib’s great fan and lyricist Gulzar.

Gulzar is going to gift it to the Delhi government to be installed in the Ghalib museum in Delhi.

The bust is expected to be installed in this museum before December 27, birthday of Ghalib — one of the greatest Urdu poets ever. Gulzar will hand over this three-and-a-half feet bust to the Delhi government on Friday. The government had opened this museum 11 years ago on December 27.

It is not a secret that Gulzar who reveres Ghalib, had also made a television serial on the poet. He has been working on the project since February. He gave the assignment of preparing Ghalib’s bust to Rampure three months ago.

The Solapur-based sculptor, who spent two months on the model, is using artificial marble for the bust. Apart from this, Rampure has to his credit the raging bull that stands outside the Bombay Stock Exchange building.

Sources close to Rampure said, “He has been working on this bust day and night. He was very happy after he got this assignment. It is something very special for him. He himself was searching for an old picture of Ghalib and kept meeting veterans from the film industry and others handling archives.”

The Haveli of famous poet Mirza Ghalib (1796-1869) is located in Gali Qasim Jaan, near the corner of Ballimaran, one of the alleys of Chandni Chowk. He spent the last years of his life, from 1865 to 1869, there.

The Haveli has since been considerably renovated and shops were set up in it. In December 1999, the Delhi Government acquired a portion of the Haveli and set up the museum.

The museum houses various important things related to the great poet, which gives an insight into his life. It has on display Ghalib’s hand-written letters, last photograph of the poet, chronology of events, selected couplets from his works, books and some of his personal belongings.

The museum also has a life-like replica of the poet in a realistic setting with a hookah in his hand. The special features of the haveli have been highlighted such as the Mughal Lakhori bricks, sandstone flooring, wooden entrance gate and chhajja in the courtyard.