History

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Ghalib lived in this haveli for a long period of his life after he came from Agra. While staying at this haveli, he wrote his Urdu and Persian ‘diwans’ (Diwan-e-Ghalib). Years after Ghalib’s death the place housed shops inside it until the year 1999 after which the government acquired a portion of it and renovated it. It was given a special touch with the use of Mughal lakhori bricks, sandstone and a wooden entrance gate to recreate the 19th-century period.^[2]

After takeover by the Delhi government the haveli was made into a permanent memorial museum in 2000 housing objects related to the poet and his times. It also houses various hand written poems by the poet besides his books. The museum also houses a life size replica of the poet in a realistic setting with a hookah in his hand. Portraits of Ustaad Zauq, Abu Zafar, Momin, and other noted contemporaries of Ghalib can also be seen. On 27 December 2010, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit unveiled a sculpture of the poet that was sculpted by a well known artist Bhagwan Rampure and commissioned by poet and lyricist Gulzar.^[4][5] A portrait of Ghalib commissioned by the former president of India Dr. Zakir Husain served as the blue print for the sculpture.^[6]

The walls are adorned with the huge portrait of the poet and his couplets which are hung around the side walls.