Who said time travel was not possible

Some time ago I had said that as soon as they invented the time machine, among other things, I would peep in at one of Ghalib's mehfils. I don't think they (the time machine wallas) have succeeded yet, but I have, now, some sort of a preview of how my journey along the negative time axis will be.

Mirza Ghalib, the teleserial, is now available in a 6 CD pack. It comes in a nice pack with small booklets containing the Ghazals in English and Urdu. The packaging is itself 'Customer Delight' and the serial? Even if you overexpect from Gulzar he will exceed your expectations.

The serial is for me time travel in two ways. Its being in a world of thick, embroidered, texturous clothes, of shoes that make churp-churp sounds, of houses with a quadrangle in the middle, of quaint lamps, of horses ...I was pleasantly surprised to find songs by Mir (Patta Patta) and Kabir sung by Fakirs/Sadhus on the streets - surprised because these don't figure in the audio casettes. And Momin and Zauq are also active (vocal) participants in the story. It is nice to recognize the Ghazals they present here and there. Ghalib was apparently more 'dildar' than I could guess from his er grouchy looking portraints on the net. The story also seems to also put some of the Ghazals from the audio cassette into context - though it must be difficult to say if they were the same contexts in which the Ghazals got written. Ghalib is full of witticisms. 'Miya Mitthu' he says to his parrot, 'Tumhare ghar na joru, na bacche, tum kyon muh latkaye ho?'. And on being asked 'Badsah ne to taaj hi utha ke rakh diya hoga (aapke) sar par' says, 'Haan woh to rakh hi dete, humne apni topi nahi utaarne di bas'. Try and imagine Naseeruddin Shah's voice when you read the lines.

The second way of time travel is because I used to watch, on and off, the serial with my mom when it was aired on Doordarshan. I didnt understand much then or pay attention, but I now know why my mom liked it so much.

Neena Gupta was a surprise too - I didn't know she was in the serial.

The serial is too good. One thing is to be said about Indians. They might not be professional and hard working and disciplined and may like to take things easy, but if they take a liking to their work they sure can produce masterpieces.

Addendum:

The way Ghalib is shown to have composed the sher 'Unke dekhe se jo aa-jati hai muh par raunak, woh samajhte hain ke beemar ka haal accha hai' is very charming.