Mirza Asadullah Khan (1797-1869) who wrote with a nom de plume of Asad before choosing Ghalib, which literally means overcoming or overpowering, hailed from a Central Asian family of Aibak Turks who served traditionally as soldier s. Unlike his grandfather who had migrated to India during the reign of Sah Alam II to join army, and his father who also followed the same profession and was killed in an army action in Alwar, Ghalib excelled brilliantly as a poet, prose writer, diarist, and a writer of engrossingly intimate letters. He was born in Agra where the family had settled. He lost his father at the age of five and was brought up by his uncle who also passed away four years later after which he was taken care of by his maternal grandfather. Married at an early age of thirteen, he moved to Delhi where he kept shifting his residence as a tenant in the vicinity of what is now known as old Delhi till he settled down in yet another rented accommodation in a locality called Ballimaran where he died in pain and penury. read less