Word Meaning
ग़लत-अंदाज़
ghalat-andāz
Meaning
Missing the target; deceptive, feigning carelessness, or looking askance.
Detailed Meaning
Literally referring to an archer who deliberately or accidentally misses the mark, in poetic idiom it describes a glance that feigns indifference or pretends to look elsewhere. In this couplet, it refers to the beloved's deceitful, casual look that pretends not to notice the lover, which wounds him like fatal poison. It conveys the agonizing cruelty of simulated inattention.
Etymology
Arabic 'ghalat' (mistake, erroneous) + Persian 'andāz' (from andākhtan, to throw/shoot).
Usage
In classical ghazal poetry, 'nigāh-e-ghalat-andāz' conventionally signifies the beloved's calculated glance which harms by feigning unintended casualness.
Examples
nigāh-e-ghalat-andāz kā sitam (the cruelty of an evasive glance)
tīr-e-ghalat-andāz (an intentionally misdirected arrow)