A five-day programme, beginning Friday, will celebrate Mirza Ghalib’s tryst with Calcutta.

Bayaad-e-Ghalib (Remembering Ghalib) will be held at Calcutta Madrasah, Aliah University, in Taltala, to commemorate the 190th year of the poet’s visit to Calcutta.

Ghalib stayed in Calcutta from February 21, 1828, to October 1, 1829. “He wanted to get his pension revised and Calcutta was the seat of the power for his new masters, the British,” said a member of Bengal Urdu Academy, which is organising the festival. “The festival will focus on Ghalib’s Calcutta connect and his inclusiveness, which is extremely relevant in the current environment of polarisation.”

This year also marks the poet’s 150th death anniversary.

The festival will include seminars, an art exhibition, plays and mushairas (poetry congregations) based on the life and times of Ghalib.

Shamim Hanfi, professor emeritus, Jamia Millia Islamia, will deliver the keynote address on Friday. Scholars from Japan, Mauritius and Bangladesh will attend seminars.

Five plays with Ghalib as the central theme will be staged in the evening — the first in Asansol and the rest at Calcutta Madrasah. The Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe will perform the plays directed by M. Sayeed Alam.

On Sunday, school students will be taken on a tour of places where Ghalib had stayed on his visit to Calcutta.

The Alami Tarahi Mushaira on Tuesday will see poets reciting self-composed kalaams, inspired by Ghalib.

“We are fortunate to pay tribute to one great poet (Ghalib) from the land of another (Tagore),” said Trinamul MP Md. Nadimul Haque, an organiser.