PUNJABI POETS-6

PROFESSOR PURAN SINGH

  
 SHORT LIFE SKETCH

Professor Puran Singh (17 February 1881 - 31 March 1931) was a famous Sikh poet and scientist born on 17 February 1881 at village called Salhad in Abbottabad District (now in Pakistan) in an Ahluwalia Khatri family. His mother's name was Parma Devi while his father was Kartar Singh who worked in the revenue department at Salhad, though their ancestral home was in the village of Dera Khalsa in Rawalpindi district, also now in Pakistan.
Puran Singh’s whole life was passed in writing activity that may be called ‘feverish’ without the implication of a mere metaphor. A vast mass of work poured out from his pen in various fields – on the science of biochemistry in which he held a professorship at the Imperial Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun; English belles; letters expressive of fervent devotion to the holy Gurus of Sikhism and their teaching, and of warm humanitarianism.
In addition, towards the last decade of his life cut short so cruelly, he poured out loads of writings in Punjabi, prose and poetry, that have acquired the status of classics in the language. The total mass of what he wrote is truly astounding and it might be said that his entire working life was devoted to writing, while no doubt in his sleeping hours his mind must have lived with his themes in dream.
Unfortunately, too soon he caught the fatal disease of tuberculosis during the last years of the decade of the 1920's; and this assuming ‘galloping’ character passed away at the end of March, 1931.

PUNJABI POET-5

Amarjit Singh Chandan, The Poet

Amarjit Chandan is a noted Punjabi poet and essayist. He is the author of eight collections of poetry and three books of essays in Punjabi (in the Gurmukhi and the Persian script) and one book of poetry in English translation. Born in Nairobi, he graduated from Punjab University. As a result of his active involvement in the Maoist Naxalite movement in his youth, he was imprisoned and spent two years in solitary confinement. Later he worked for various Punjabi literary and political magazines, including the Mumbai-based Economic and Political Weekly, before migrating to England in 1980. He lives in London.


Chandan has edited many anthologies of world poetry and fiction, including two collections of “British Punjabi” poetry and short fiction. Translated into Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Romanian and various Indian languages, his work is included in several anthologies in India and abroad. He has participated in poetry readings in England, Hungary and at Columbia University. An active translator, he has translated work by Brecht, Neruda, Ritsos, Hikmet and Cardenal, among others, into Punjabi. 

Audio Collection of His Poetry: Punjabi Poetry Audio - Amarjit chandan's Poetry in his own voice

In recognition of his contribution to contemporary Punjabi letters, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the Punjab Government in December 2004, and yet another lifetime achievement award by the Punjabi community in Britain (All-Party Parliamentary Group, London) in 2006. He was among the British poets on Radio 3 selected by Andrew Motion on National Poetry Day in 2001.

Chandan’s poetry does not invoke the theme of place with any easy sentimentalism. Nakoda, his home town in the Punjab, does recur in these selected poems with an insistent longing. There is a particularly vibrant memory of the entire village sharing a collective dream as it congregates to watch a silent film in the year 1930. But the memories of home are more layered than they may initially seem. The sight of a billboard advertising lasan or garlic in a distant country appears to arouse a simple nostalgia, but the poet is also aware of the aching cargo of loss the word evokes for the women farm labourers of California. And for all the memories of childhood and adolescence — his mother’s laughter, the clang of the village school-bell — there is also the unforgettable sound of prison gates.

There is a silence in Chandan’s poetry — a deep sense of the unspoken, and more accurately, the unspeakable. This is, no doubt, intimately connected with his years of solitary confinement in an Amritsar prison. In an interview (not included in this edition) he declares that his belief in “violence as a midwife of change” has long been buried. But what is not so easy to bury is memory: memory of torture, sleep deprivation and of the interminable hours in a prison cell, in which time frayed his nerves “like chalk screeching on a blackboard. You count your breaths, lose count and start again . . . I’m a poet, yet there are no words to explain these feelings, this loss of spirit.”

When he edited the Maoist movement’s official publication, Lokyudh, he believed words were his weapon. There is little evidence of that bellicosity in these poems. Words here are precarious and makeshift signposts in a vast hinterland of memory. They do not seek to tame silence, merely make a fragile truce with its un-mappability.

Amarjeet Chandan
And 
Paash

PUNJABI POET-4

LAL SINGH 'DIL'

LAL SINGHJ DIL


by: Nirupma Dutt

Lal Singh Dil. Samrala. Nov 1978. Photo by Amarjit Chandan

Lal Singh Dil (1943-2007) 

How is one to remember Lal Singh Dil? The literary status of Dil in the world of Punjabi literature was never disputed and he is often described as the poets’ poet. Punjabi poet Surjit Patar says: “He will be counted as one of the top Punjabi poets of the twentieth century.” However, there was more to Dil’s life than is difficult to slot. It was a life of immense struggle as his story stands witness to the deep-rooted human discrimination in the name of caste, which, a creation of the Hindu way of life, is yet to be found in all major religions that have been based on conversion from Hinduism. Sadly enough, it has also been a part of the Left group cadres, which ideologically do not recognize religion, caste or creed. So Dil’s various attempts to transcend the caste barrier by joining the Naxalite movement of the late sixties in Punjab or later converting to Islam with the new name of Mohammad Bushra met with frustration that his simple poetic heart opposed.

However, his life and struggle raise the issue of caste prejudice and a big question mark after his death. Punjab has a higher Dalit percentage than that of the other states. Scheduled Caste form about 30 percent of the total population and eight percent of these castes live in the rural area and are landless and mostly Sikh Jats are the land owners. The Dalits take the religion of their masters as per old practice.

Born to a low-caste Ramdasia Chamar (tanner) family, Dil was the first of his clan to pass Class X, while doing his daily labour, and go to college. He was training to be a basic school teacher when Naxalbari intervened. Dil’s poetry was true to his life and that of those around him and the experience of poverty, injustice and oppression was so real and told so well that he was hailed as the bard of the Naxalite movement in Punjab. In the dream of a society free of caste and class, Dil saw a new dawn for the oppressed. However, the extreme Left cadres were not without the caste factor and when the movement was crushed the torture meted out to the Dalits by the upper-caste police was far worse. Dil went underground and moved to Muzaffar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. Here comes the progresson of Dil. As a caretaker of a mango orchard there, he came in contact with Muslim culture. Once again he saw escape from caste oppression and converted to Islam. In a historical letter written to his mentor-friend Amarjit Chandan in February 1974, he revealed his decision in a long letter saying a crescent moon had appeared on the palm of his hand and adding a line: “Allah is very kind to Maoists because he understands cultures.”

Years later Dil was to tell me, “Caste prejudice exists among the Muslims too.” And this was a scathing comment on the “Manu-made” evil that exists among the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs of the sub-continent because it is so deeply rooted in the Hindu way of life that it is difficult to get rid of it even after conversion. However, Dil remained a devout Muslim saying his namaz , keeping rozas (fasting) and eating only halaal. While he did not put his last wish to be buried on paper yet he had articulated it to his close riends and relatives. Gulzar Mohammad Goria, a writer and Dil’s constant companion, told me: “The wish was communicated to his brothers and left-wing activists. However, there was no Muslim burial ground is Samrala as the Wakf Board had leased out the ground to a Sadhu, who has built a temple there.” It would have meant taking his body to the neighbouring village of Bhaundli but it may not have been accepted there so the brothers of dil conferred and respecting the fact that he had converted to Islam, they yet decided to cremate him as they had done with other elders of the family. Goria adds, “We did not wish to rake a controversy that would make Dil the Muslim overshadow Dil the great poet.”

A great poet he was undoubtedly and his collection of poetry Satluj di Hava (1971), Bahut Saare Suraj (1982), andSathar (1997) as well as his autobiography, Dastaan, enjoy an exalted place in Punjabi letters. However, his life was a constant struggle. He was never married nor did he enjoy the companionship of any woman. His body and mind wrecked by police torture, he took to country brew. When the Naxalite movement was crushed all the activists went back to their class folds. Dil had nowhere to go to. His dreams for a better life were gone and till the end he remained a ‘proclaimed offender’ in police records because there was no one to help and set the record straight. Sadly, many Naxalite writers and artistes were to receive honours, posts and money from the government but even the meager pension of Languages Department, Punjab was not to find its way to Dil’s hovel through his long years of penury or illness.

For some years after his return to Samrala, Goria and he reopened the mosque in Samrala with Dil saying the morning and evening azaan (call for prayer). Goria recalls: “God is everywhere and our effort in opening the mosque was directed to give confidence to a minority community who should not be afraid of going to their own place for prayer. However, when people started coming to the mosque, the Wakf Board intervened and took over. Well, the Wakf Board must be having its own reason because political ideology apart, Dil and Goria were just a bit too fond of their drink.

With the money sent by his well-wishers in England, his hut was made over into a pucca home and a wooden shack built to serve as a teashop so that he may earn a living by selling tea. He did so in partnership with Pala, a local upper-caste drug addict, but after his death the shop was closed. On Sunday when hundreds of all shades gathered to bid adieu to Dil, but for one all old comrades took care not to mention the two truths of dil’s life: one that he had converted to Islam and the other he found solace in addiction. Expressing regret as an ex-Naxalite activist Manmohan Sharma, an admirer of the days when red had not faded, says: “This is how society exhumes radicalism and Dil the radical was not acceptable either to the society or his own party cadres.” Chandan adds more explicitly: “Beneath the faded red, the Hindus and Sikhs, they would not have anything to do with his last wish for a burial.”

Dil was a legend in his lifetime and now after him his poetry lives and so does his struggle and protest. He had told this writer that one day people would come and sing qawwalisunder the banyan tree outside his hovel. It will happen one day, for in ‘Manto-town’ (Samrala being the birth place of Saadat Hasan Munto) Dil was the true faqir and Manto and Dil were forever buried in many a heart.

(Lal Singh Dil, poet, born 11 April 1943, Ghungraali Sikhaan, Ludhiana; died 14 August 2007 Dayanand Medical College and Hospital Ludhiana.)

PUNJABI POETESS-2

PRABHJOT KAUR

Kaur, Prabhjot is an eminent Punjabi nationalist poet. She was born on 6 July, 1924 in village Langaryal, Distt. Gujrat, now in Pakistan. Her parents were S. Nidhan Singh Sachar and Smt. Rajinder Kaur. She is married to Col. Narenderpal Singh, who is a well-known novelist, author and journalist himself. They have two daughters: Nirupama Kaur and Anupama Kaur. Nirupama Kaur is a poet and author and Anupama Kaur is a painter. Her early life was spent in various cantonments all over India as her father was a Farms Officer in Military Farms.

Beautiful surroundings and loneliness made her a poet at a very young age. She actually started writing at the age of eight. She became the editor of the school wall paper and later of the college magazine. Freedom struggle made her a patriotic poet and her first book was published in 1943. She was influenced by nature as she mostly lived far away from the cities. Travelling also made her vision broader. By 1946, she had already published four collection of poems, which were read by the then Major Naranderpal Singh who was in Syria at that time.

Singh started taking interest in her and contacted her parents for her hand. His works were also already being published in various magazines. Prabhjot Kaur read one of his pieces—a ballad—which she thought that was somehow incomplete. She continued the poem and published it in the same magazine in the following issue. It became a six poem serial written alternately by them and was published under the name of "Karle" before even they met.

Eventually, they met in April, 1947 but the riots in Punjab separated them for the time being and they finally got married in 1948. Singh continued his service in the Army and started writing novels which became very popular. Prabhjot Kaur kept on writing poetry. In 1954, she got an award for her book written for children from the Language Department of Punjab. Her husband was posted as Military Attache to Afghanistan in 1956 and they remained there till 1960. During this time, her poetry was translated into Persian and published in Kabul in a collection named, "Lala".

In 1964, she won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her collection of poems, "Pabbi". In the same year, she was nominated as the Poet Laureate of Punjab. In 1966, she was nominated to the Vidhan Parishad of Punjab, and in 1967, she was honoured with Padmashree. She is closely associated with International P.E.N. and attends many meetings on behalf of India. She has also been a member of the National Commission of UNESCO. In 1968, she won the coveted award of "La Rose de France".

Her poetry was translated into French and published in Paris under the heading of Plateau". In 1975, she was designated "The woman of the year 1975" by Philippines. By now, she has published 24 collection of poems, 4 collection of short stories, a few general books and some books for children. She has been translated and published into Bulgarian (Light and shadows); English (Plateau and Dreams Dir Young); Persian (Lala), French (Plateau) and in Danish (Shadow).

Besides, she has been translated into Greek, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian and many Indian regional languages. She has been honoured by Punjab as Shromani Shaityakar, and by Delhi Administration for her contribution to literature. Poetry Society of U.S.A. has decorated her with Distinguished Order of Poetry. She has passed through many stages and now she represents the quintessence of Indian culture and heritage. She wears saree and Punjabi dress.

She has travelled very widely so her attitude towards situations is modem. She is aware of the changing patterns of life and living. Generally, she has contributed in all spheres of life as her husband Col. Narenderpal Singh was Deputy Military Secretary to the President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, for four years and then Military Attache in France for three years. Narenderpal won his Sahitya Akademy award in 1976, thus making them the only couple in India who are both Sahitya Akademi winners.

PROMINENT PEOPLE: Punjabi Poetess-1

A Brief Autobiography

I was born in Pothohar, Rawalpindi - now in Pakistan. My grandfather was the prime minister of Sir Baba Gurbaksh Singh Ji - a descendent in the lineage of Guru Nanak. It was a period of turmoil and my mother used to say that hoards of Muslims used to come to our village 'Kallar'(near Rawalpindi) shouting 'Ali, Ali' and we used to hide wherever we could. The Muslims used to take girls forcibly from the villages.

I initially studied in 'Kallar 'and then moved to Rawalpindi where I continued with my studies till the sixth standard, after which we came to Lahore. My two sisters and I joined a school there but unfortunately I fell sick and could not complete my studies although my mother wanted me to go to college and graduate but her and my dreams were further shattered as in a couple of years I was married off to Dr. Gopal Singh Puri who was a PhD in philosophy. He got a scholarship to do his second PhD in botany to go to London in 1945, just after the Second World War. I joined him in 1946.
In those days there was no air transport available for the public - the air service was only for the armed forces, so I came to England in a steam ship 'Princess of Scotland'. In this ship I reached Liverpool where my husband welcomed me. While passing through the streets of Liverpool I noticed complete serenity and people minding their own business. After the hustle bustle of India this came as a complete surprise to me and a thought came to my mind, "Is this England?" - what a contrast!
That very day we reached London in a mail train and went straight to a bed-sit which my husband had rented. It was not easy even in those times to rent a place by an Indian and that also a turbaned one, but still the grace of the Maharajas was etched in the minds of Londoners and we were treated with respect. There was no question of racism in them days. In fact we were given preferential treatment in some stores during the 'Rationing days' while buying groceries or vegetables, which was indeed an honour in those days.
Being a newly wed bride, I was a very shy girl and let alone speak in English even to speak in my own mother language, Punjabi, was a matter of concern. But my husband never ever made any comments on it and even when some distinguished guests would arrive and I was my own shy self, he would never put me down, make any derogatory remarks or furthermore ask me to attend any English classes. He was a very patient and an understanding man.
My son was born in England and the three of us went to India in 1950. After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, nearly all of our relatives had migrated to India and were living in different parts of Punjab - a time of great suffering.
My husband got a job in Dehradun as a Conservative Forest Officer and we breathed a sigh of relief. Then we went to Pune where my husband got a job as a director of Botanical Survey of India and it was here that my literary pursuits began to take shape. I started to write and wrote a few small articles, which when my husband read, asked me to send them to Prof. Mohan Singh in Jullundur to be printed in his magazine 'Panj Dariya'. I was very sceptic about all this that my immature writing would be accepted by such a learned person. But to my surprise a letter was received after some time praising my work and professor sahib asking for more similar writing which was going to be used in the 'Nari Sansar' column of the magazine. The encouragement given by a great scholar like Prof. Mohan Singh was the beginning of my literary journey.
To date I have written thirty seven books, performed the role of an agony aunt, a referring sexologist, novelist and written poetry and held poetical symposiums, my most memorable being with Shiv Kumar Batalvi. My articles have been printed in various English and Punjabi magazines and I have been broadcasting and debating various issues on TV and the radio mediums.
I owe all my achievements to the efforts of my esteemed husband and mentor who encouraged and helped me in my all ventures - to him I am sincerely indebted and pray for his blessed soul.

Mrs. Kailashpuri, now in her seventies is a very charming personality. A person with immense wisdom in human psychology and various other subjects belies her academic knowledge to standard sixth. Her achievements in the literary and the human world are an example in itself. A lovely person who is sought after by the media whenever the question of 'women 'is raised. (Kanwal)
I am proud to present a fraction of her model life.
She has been decorated with the following awards:
Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid, Literary Award 1982
Shiromaini Sahitkar Award - Bhasha Vibhag 1989.
Shiromani Award - Institute of Sikh Studies, Delhi 1990.
Personality of the Year Award, Khalsa College, London 1991
Woman of Achievement Award 1999.
Millennium Woman Award. Mayor of Ealing 1999.
Ambassador for Peace- Women's Federation for World Peace 2001
All national Papers have interviewed and published Columns in their papers.
Many times attended and presented papers in International Conferences in Korea, Japan, Americas, Cairo, United Kingdom and many Indian Universities.

Kailash Puri with Shiv Kumar Batalvi with the Mayor of Liverpool when Shiv visited UK. Her husband Dr. Puri stands behind her.

Kailash Puri on the mike itntroducing the versatile Shiv Kumar Batalvi in a Poetical Symposium held in his honour. Kailash Puri and her husband were responsible for Shiv's visit to UK. They have been know to entertain many other artistes from the sub continent

PROMINENT PEOPLE: Punjabi Poets-3

SHIV KUMAR BATALVI

SHIV KUMAR LIVE

Shiv Kumar Batalvi (born July 23, 1936 in Bara Pind Lohtian, Shakargarh Tehsil, Punjab [now in Pakistani Punjab], died May 7, 1973 in Kir Mangyal, Pathankot, Punjab) was a giant on the 20th century Punjabi poetry scene.

Widely known as the "King of Solitude", Shiv was a young man of barely 20 years of age when he appeared as a star on the national scene. By living a brief and intense life that was devoted to writing deeply profound, passionate and enchantingly lyrical poetic expressions of the pathos of his time, and dying young at the age of 36, a fate that he had predicted and romanticized throughout his poetry, he attained the charisma of a modern day saint and a fallen hero in the eyes of many of his admirers. [Courtesy: Wikipedia]

Please click here to view an interview done of him, in which he also magnificently sings one of his own compositions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxSRTmpSpVQ 

Other useful resources about Shiv Batalvi:

raghav505.blogspot.com/2008/06/shiv-kumar-bat..