It is fine to fall in love with English ladies, but mistaking them for heavenly houris is the real disaster.

Akbar Allahabadi brings his signature satirical wit to this couplet, gently mocking the colonial fascination with modern British ladies ('Misses'). He playfully remarks that falling in love with them is understandable, but glorifying them as celestial maidens of heaven ('houris') is utter foolishness. The real catastrophe ('qayamat'), he hints, is not desire itself, but losing one's own cultural grounding and perspective in blind infatuation.