Faruqi writing to a correspondent, June 2010:


"You ask a very good question. It set me thinking about my personality development. I came to the conclusion that Faruqi until age 35 was created by many Western poets and novelists and dramatists, particularly Shakespeare and Hardy, and Western theorists of literature, and Ghalib. Faruqi after 35 and until age 40 was created and nurtured by a sustained interlocution with Ghalib, closely followed by Iqbal and western writers. Faruqi after age 40 was generated almost entirely by Mir, closely followed by Iqbal, the Sabk-e Hindi farsi poets, many 18th c. Urdu poets, and Ghalib. Now Faruqi is nearly 75 and doesn't want to go anywhere else.
"

[made available here with the writer's permission]