FWP:
For background see S. R. Faruqi's choices. This verse is NOT one of his choices; for the sake of completeness, I have added it myself. For more on Ghalib's unpublished verses, see the discussion in {4,8x}.
The commentators have largely ignored this little stepchild of the divan ghazal-- it's the only verse omitted from the divan version. (It's an additional opening-verse, and was the second verse in the original ghazal.) Ghalib not only omitted it from the divan, but also omitted it from the verses he selected for . However, from his 'Gul-e ra'na' selection he also omitted the first verse; nor does Faruqi count the first verse among those he admires (in this ghazal, he admires only verses four and five). Yet I myself am particularly fond of {131,1} (and it wouldn't surprise me, dear reader, if you liked it too). Obviously, Ghalib's choices and Faruqi's choices are contingent and based on personally adopted criteria that in Ghalib's case are quite unknowable (and possibly governed by non-literary priorities), and even in Faruqi's case are not always all that clear (despite his many theoretical writings on the ghazal). The moral is that we are all entitled to choose our own favorites. Of course, for better or worse, every such choice has behind it an implicit (even if not explicit) esthetic of the chooser's own.
The first line is deliberately framed to take advantage of the range of possibilities of both baat and chaahnaa . (On the protean possibilities of baat , see {59,2}.) I imagine it might correspond to something like 'You just want what you want, when you want it!'. It sounds like a child's tantrum waiting to happen. The beloved might not be able to put what she wants into words; she might not even know what she wants-- but she knows that she wants it! And she is the 'Sahib' (a title that in fact used to be gender-neutral), so that anyone who aspires to be her companion needs to have miraculous powers (to both intuit and fulfill her demands).
It may not be the best verse that Ghalib ever composed, but in my view it's far from the worst. The first line is a treat-- it should be accompanied by the imperious stamp of a beautiful-- and 'miraculously powerful'-- foot.
Gyan Chand:
We wish for that thing/idea [Gyan Chand's text has hai;N instead of ho] the existence of which is necessary and proper. We are your companion. If only we had enough power so that what we wanted would always come to pass! It's clear that this thing/idea will be 'union'. In the Sherani manuscript, instead of chaahte hai;N there's chaahte ho . In this case the meaning will be: 'You wish for the thing/idea that ought to exist. We are your companion. If only we had enough power within us so that we would pray for your wish to be fulfilled, and it would be fulfilled.
== Gyan Chand, p. 493