That plain, forceful, physical, almost chicken-scratching word indeed seems to be at the center of the verse. The commentators read it as describing a search for something that might be lying there amidst the ashes-- something like a scorched, blackened, shrivelled heart. But has another sense as well (see the definition above): that of poking up a fire, of stirring up embers-- of perhaps seeking to rekindle old passions. And it has a final sense of groping around in something, exploring it-- a sense that is elegantly echoed in . On the versatility of , see 12,2 . Needless to say, all those senses work well with the protean question . The range of meaning here is even greater-- in fact, it's truly remarkable. Here are some possible readings: ='What or whom are you searching for?' ='What is the meaning of the 'search' itself?' (In a situation of such total devastation and impossibility, can there even be such a thing?) ='It's not as if this is a search-- this is hardly a search!' (It's something else entirely-- cruelty? attempted torture? idle curiosity? passing nostalgia?) ='What a search it is!' (How extraordinary, or quixotic, or doomed, or admirable, or infuriating, etc.) Moreover, these questions are real, and arresting, and quite compelling once you start thinking about them; in all their glory they open up a whole range of possibilities. They open them all up-- and, needless to say, don't shut any of them down. All the words beginning with create a nice kind of sound effect, and culminate of course in . There's also a kind of rushed sense in which sounds as if what has burned is 'the body, the world, the heart too'. Of course we go back and retrospectively redo our reading of , but the first time through, there's almost have the sense of a cosmic conflagration. Compare the radical nature of the destruction in 5,2 ; and the 'digging/investigation' in 13,7 . But above all the present verse reminds me of 17,8 : it could very well embody the 'repentance of that quick-repenter'. We know of course that Ghalib greatly admired Bedil . In a discussion on the Urdulist (Nov. 2015), Kamal Abdali observed that the present verse was often considered to be influenced by Bedil's only known Urdu verse: [it's been ages since it has become dust in an inner burning now you seek for the heart-- now where in us is the heart?] For those interested in further Bedil-and-Ghalib research, he recommended the papers in this * volume edited by Shaukat Mahmud *. graphics/ashes.jpg