Indian Diplomat's Wife - on Life and Time in Saudi Arabia

(This article was published on June 29, 1992, in newspaper Riyadh Daily, Page 2, Columns 3-8)

By Raina Abu Zafir (Special to Riyadh Daily)

OF ALL the members of the diplomatic corps there are a large number who leave an indelible mark on the social register of the place of their posting. 

Riyadh has been witness to many incoming and outgoing diplomats. There have been many whom we’ve met through these columns and have remembered long after.

Mrs. Aradhana Balanand, wife of Bal Anand, Minister at the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, though outwardly reserved and soft spoken, has a warmth and codiality of personality which has endeared her to people as much as her husband.  

The Bal Anands will soon be leaving these shores for another posting. We wish them the best. 

Please tell us something about yourself?

I was born in a town situated on the River Ravi in the Punjab. As my father was an officer in the Indian Railways, I ad opportunities from the very beginning to travel with my family to the far-flung regions of India: the lush green Assam; the ancient city of Patna in Bihar; Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh; the state of Rajasthan, known for their valor its people and their colorful desert life traditions. After a brief stay in Allahabad, the city Nehrus, I came with my family to New Delhi which became my home after my marriage. The most enduring memories for me are the luxuriously long travels with my brothers and sisters by train speeding through the vast stretches of villages, cities, jungles, hills, etc. and the myriad sights of Indian people on the railway platforms.

Could you tell us about your country?

As referred earlier, I have been fortunate to experience the amazing variety in India of the cultural traditions, social customs, food habits, languages, costumes, etc. This variety of living patterns has been shaped by the conditions of climate and the immediate environments.

I have, however, noticed that strains of cultural similarity and a shared destiny have always existed among the people of India who have chosen to be united by the secular and democratic political system of independent India. The genius of Indian civilization, perhaps, lies in its ability to absorb and encompass the many cultures it has come into contact with. Many races and faiths have made their home in India and have contributed to the richness of the composite culture of the land.

Islam came to India in the century of its birth and the Islamic impact on the art, literature and architecture has been inestimable.

The prismatic beauty of the cultural traditions is best exhibited during the folk festivals and fairs which are typical to every region of India. There have been systematic efforts to preserve and nourish the popular and folk dances, arts and crafts, and songs. The means of modern mass media have certainly been a great help in this. At different places of our stay, our houses had typical local fruits, flora and fauna. I have vivid memories of the fruit-laden mango trees which we would eat to our hearts' content, inviting sometimes even sickness by overeating the delicious fruit!

How would you compare your life here to that of India?

While thinking of the comparison between life in the Kingdom with that in India, I must say that there are many similarities between them, particularly the fact that the family is the pivot around which the life revolves. The city of Riyadh offers secure life with all the modern comforts. During my brief travels to different parts of the Kingdom, I have been impressed by the facilities available to the people. The Asir region which is so full of natural beauty. The modernization in terms of economic and industrial development in the Kingdom has indeed been impressive. The presence of a large number of Indians, including a significant sprinkling of highly qualified professionals, adds a special positive dimension of the stay of the Indian diplomats in the Kingdom.

What are your impressions of the different countries you have visited so far?

The duties of my husband have taken us to different countries fo the world and have found each of them beautiful and lovable in its own peculiar ways. We have been posted to Iran, Maldives, Romania and Spain before our arrival in the Kingdom. We have been blessed with the kindness and generosity of friends in all these countries.

We have been surprised and touched by the deep knowledge and genuine regard for the heritage of India of many friends though had never been to India. For example, in Romania, Rabindranath Tagore is the most popular poet and the students of Bucharest study Bengali and stage plays of Tagore. Similarly, the Spanish tourists love Rajasthan and the Himalayas. We continue our contacts with many friends in the countries of our previous postings and we hope to have a similar experience after our stay in the Kingdom.

What do people want to know the most of India?

We have found that people in the various countries are keen to know about historical heritage, composite culture and the dynamic polity of India. We have also come across many scholars of Indian philosophy and literature. Indian films are very popular in most of the countries and film personalities like the late Raj Kapoor and Nargis, Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini are household names in distant lands.

What would you like them to know most of India?

I feel that friends from other countries may try to understand more deeply that India is the home of such a large number of people with different religions, languages and distinct cultural identities but united with a passionate commitment to their all round development through democratic means. The vast progress made in the crucial sectors of agriculture, health and education, need be understood with a balanced approach. Naturally, I would like more friends from other countries to pay visit to India because the innate beauties of life in India with its pluses and minuses could only be understood when one mingles with the people of India. India has so much to present in terms of its historical, cultural and artistic heritage as well as the current achievements in various fields of human endeavors.

How would you compare the status and role of woman in your country to those of women elsewhere?

It may be mentioned that the constitution of India has provided full and unfettered opportunities to women to excel themselves in every field of national life. In fact, women played an important role during the freedom struggle of India. I think women in India are doing quite well and compare favorably with their sisters in other countries. One has only to look at the declaration of academic results in the Indian newspapers to find how girls are beating the boys in almost all examinations. The success of the modern Indian woman, to my mind, has been her remarkable capability to strike a harmony between her chosen profession and her traditional duties at home. I must, however, add that much more remains to be done for the welfare of women in India.

Do you meet many women here?

During my meetings with them, I have found Saudi ladies very friendly, hospitable and helpful. I had opportunities to attend a few Saudi marriages and was impressed by the spirit of gaiety and the typical traditions associated with the marriage ceremony. I think the Saudi women are doing very well to cope with the evolving environs in the Kingdom.

How do you spend your time?

I am, by nature, a home bird and I’m very happy managing the household and looking after the family. During the previous years, bringing up of our two sons was almost a full-time job. Now the younger son is with us while the elder one studies in India. We have quite a busy routine of activities with the diplomatic colleagues and local friends. There are also social and cultural events in the Indian School and the embassy.

Do you have any hobbies?

I am very fond of music, particularly of the old classical tradition. We enjoy Urdu poetry which is common to all the countries of the Indian subcontinent. We have been collecting over the years cassettes of music and songs. The poetic form of Ghazal, as you know, has been imparted a special eminence by the innovative singers like Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, Gulam Ali, and a host of the new generation of singers. I have also been an avid reader of Hindi/Urdu fiction and the novels of great writers of Bengal which are available in translations.

What are your impressions about Saudi Arabia?

We have had a very comfortable and rewarding time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The war for the liberation of Kuwait - I returned to Riyadh from India a week before the start of it - would indeed be a historical experience to remember. The city of Riyadh offers interesting opportunities for shopping and the women are compulsively drawn into this never ending game.

What do you find unique about this place?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a unique and proud heritage of its own. The utilization of the national resources for the all round development of the country and the welfare of the people has indeed impressed me the most.

Extract from Saudi Gazette on 14 July 1992:

Three receptions will be held in honour of Indian Embassy minister Bal Anand and his wife as they prepare to depart the Kingdom after three years of service at the Indian mission in Riyadh. Ambassador Ishrat Aziz and his wife will host a gathering at their residence the evening of Wednesday, July 15. The following day R.O. Wallang, first secretary at the embassy, and his wife, Dr Wesline Wallang, will hold an afternoon reception to bid the Anands good-bye. And the minister himself has scheduled a farewell reception at the Anand residence on the evening of Wednesday, July 22. Anand came to the Kingdom in 1989 after working in Spain. Anand’s wife and 12-year old son, Varoon, will accompany him to Islamabad, where he has been appointed deputy high commissioner at the Indian Embassy there. His 18-year-old son, Aditya, will begin university studies in India.

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An Autobiography of Global-Warrior-Poet

Professor Doctor Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’ (वेदप्रकाश 'वटुक'), an amazingly gifted poet and a multi-disciplinary scholar, has presented-on his 87th birth day, on April 13, 2018 - the fullest autobiographical account of his life and time to his global circle of readers and comrades. He has solemnly stated, "Dedicated with reverence to the pious memory of my ancestors and love to my descendants."  He quotes lines from Atharava Veda to emphasize and eulogize the dire necessity - like Oxygen - of ‘Freedom from Fear’ for all living species - humans above all - during their limited sojourn on this planet. A meticulously disciplined and deeply devoted artist of ‘penning words of beauty and wisdom’, he had started this magnum opus on 11th October, 2016 - the birth day of his late scholarly brother Ramniwas Vidyarthi - and completed it on 21st November, 2017 - the date of the anniversary of death of both Ram and a sister, Shanti. The reader will have to be a brave hearted and a determined seeker to complete the ‘Paath - study with reverence’ of this epochal saga of Ved’s multi-challenged early life and a continuously active participation in the struggles for justice and human dignity waged by the marginalized and discriminated people in all the countries of the world. This unique literary creation requires to be studied and meditated upon as an epic of poet’s marathon run of life in his soulful lifelong search and ceaseless struggle in quest of Freedom, Equality and Justice for the human race.  

We have to embark upon poet Vatuk’s ‘Meri Saar Gujashat-Aap-‘hadd’ (bones) Beeti i.e. An Account of my Life’ accepting an ugly and harsh truth that the entire history of humanity can be studied, analyzed and understood as an endless chronology of personal and collective travails of bloody conflicts and violence premised and disguised in the utterly false pretexts like race and religion but plainly paraphrased as crude and naked barbarity, loot and plunder. The wise philosophers of earlier civilizations; learned political thinkers of later centuries;  the modern socio-biologists and the latest breed of behavior scientists have all made ceaseless and sincere endeavors to decode deeper underlying impulses behind the mass elimination of one group of ‘naked apes’ by another of the same species - audaciously still calling itself 'homo sapiens'! The colonial imperialism created and practiced by the various European countries during the last five centuries of the world history - in the wake of the era of discoveries of the new oceanic routes - characteristically differed from the earlier versions of the empires patched up via the tough terrains of the land routes. The subjugated countries were, in the new deal of dehumanizing discrimination amounting to enslavement, to be systematically exploited for enriching the distantly lying conquering countries. The tiny tribe from the British Isles was, perhaps, to turn out to be the cleverest of all to put together the most splendid example of this model by adopting ‘nashtam-pushtam i.e. destroy and nourish’ policy in the ‘legendary ancient land of glory that was India’. 

The historic background of the emergence of the brand new nation named the United States of America was, however, peculiarly unprecedented: the consequence of the sectarian persecution in Europe - majority of them  being Anglo Saxons - creating a vast new state. The process had been preceded by a brutal decimation of the local people and their cultures. The newly contrived state then proclaimed itself to be the first in the world to craft a Constitution adopting the high and lofty ideals of governance which were, however, adroitly confined to the few people of the Caucasian race. The inspiration for the participatory democracy had surely come from the intoxicating slogans of the French Revolution of July 1789 - Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The Iberian colonial powers - Spain and Portugal - outsmarted others in resorting to ruthless genocidal oppression in eliminating the local populace - but having no compunctions in ‘cultivating’ their women and ‘pro-creating’ a new racial dimension; and then resorting to oppression against their own blood-product!

The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed the beginning of the determined efforts by the natives in many countries to regain their freedom from the colonial powers. The long drawn - faithfully claimed to be based on 'Ahimsa - Nonviolence' - struggle in India waged by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of MK Gandhi - indeed set unimagined high moral standards for its followers to attain their political goals. It is in this overarched frame of reference that we have to study and examine the epochal autobiography of Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’, a many splendored man - a versatile scholar-academic; a lifelong activist for equality and justice and above all a Mahankavi - a gifted prolific poet. 

This essay is an attempt at a difficult literary task - a reader friendly lucid review of the mighty work of a poet-thinker, published in Four Parts of Paper Back - running into a total 1231 pages - written in masterly Hindi of the soil of Tulsi and Rahim, aptly hailed as a ‘Historic Document disguised as an Autobiography’. The life of Ved Prakash, born on April 13, 1932 in a Gaud Brahmin family, living in a small village called Fazal Pur - meaning, ‘Full of Blessing’, located 32 km from historic city of Meerut, in its North West, indeed embraces the heart and soul of the pulsating and evolving India as well as the tumultuous and technology driven new world of the Europe, UK and the USA. How simple boy from a small place belonging to a ‘Swatantarata Senani - Soldiers of Freedom’ family of very modest means managed to beg and borrow money here and there from friends and relations for the sea fare and mustered enough courage to take the plunge - at the age of 23 - into the vast unknown to cross oceans and face all the unimagined challenges of living, learning and protesting - all indeed constitute the spinal-cord of the story of our unusual hero. He had sought to brave it all with just the inherited integrity and nobility of his personal character - and the only craft he had known: to compose poetry! 

Book 1 - भटकाव ही पथ बन गए

To get an introduction and broader understanding of this most truthful literary testament chronicling ‘toil, tears and triumph’ of our self-effacing hero, let us begin with a summarized over view of the Aatam Katha - literally, Story of the soul - I am even tempted call it ‘Vatukayan’, after the immortal Indian epic! The First Part - 67 chapters, without any headings and list of contents in the beginning, spanning 384 pages - is interestingly titled, ‘Getting Stranded: It also paved Path Ways’ describes, in the minutest details, the early life of Ved, son of Krishan Lal (b. 1886) and Kripi Devi who had been married, as per tradition, in their early teens. Ved - their 13th and the last issue, born on April 13, 1931 - had been preceded by the 1st born eldest brother, Sundar Lal (b. in 1906) and then the three sisters; the next seven male issues had not survived more than a couple of years. Most memorably, the saintly son, Sunder, is quoted consoling his mother, “Don’t worry, my dear Mom; like my three sisters, we will be three brothers too!” - P. 22. And Ved, most  memorably, records, "As if to prove this pious prediction by the noble - in the scriptural echo - son to be correct, younger brother Ram Niwas was born, 21 years later after  Sunder’s own birth and I followed four years later!" - P. 23. So deeply sadly, writes Ved with a courage of his conviction, “mother became blind after the birth of Ram - may be - because of lack of proper nursing care and had to live with the disability from age 41 till her death at 85 in 1971” - P. 30. He, however, states that lack of sight did not inhibit her life style of active routine and a fuller participation in all the affairs of the family. Ved, the Shravan son, proudly refers to her phenomenal memory - which the youngest son would seem to have inherited in equally ample measure! Vatuk’s love and devotion towards the two elder brothers - father had died in 1941, at the age of 55 - and the three sisters might seem to have been, as if, inspired straight from pages of Hindu scriptures. 

The dedicated patriot and social servant of the strictly Gandhian creed, Sunder Lal, was arrested and imprisoned six times between 1921-42, for a longer spell during the ‘Quit India Movement’ in 1942. A son, named Onkar Dutt, was born to his wife Balwanti Devi in Oct. 1942. Ved was deeply inculcating the values of self-denial, patriotism and sacrifice for the society in the rapidly expanding joint family and in the company of many elders around who were all self-sacrificing freedom fighters. He braved with the crowd - as a child of eight - to walk a distance of 10 km on a cold day of January in 1940 to have glimpse of Neta Ji Subhas Chandra Bose. The 54th Session of the Congress in Meerut on November 23-26, 1946 was indeed the most memorable - a dream come true - a life time opportunity for ‘boy-Ved’ to have,’paavan Darshan - holy sight’ of the top leaders of the freedom struggle. The witty Acharya JB Kriplani impressed him. Jawaharlal was the perfect picture of grace and people simply adored him. Ved passed his Matriculation Examination in 1948 obtaining the first position in his school. He went on to complete M.A. in Sanskrit in 1954; he had obtained special distinctions in the earlier Intermediate and B.A. Examinations, displaying a distinct aptitude and high proficiency for languages. A few sadder experiences in seeking some suitable employment and increasing disappointment with the steep decline in the Gandhian-values based politics and creeping ‘hera-pheris - unfair practices’ in the government of the Congress Party confused him-more of it is authentically detailed in later Parts. It was, however, the sudden strong urge to go abroad and the attraction ‘to see the wide world’ overpowered his mind with the idea to go abroad. An old friend Narayan’s example of doing well in London was an added inspiration. Managing to obtain the passport after several hiccups - a tough task in those days if you could not pull some high official string - and borrowing small sums from several friends and relations to purchase the ticket for journey by sea to London, Ved has given hilarious accounts of situations because of his not having lack of basic necessities like proper clothing for such a travel and ignorance about food and other amenities in the ship - he was even uncomfortable using the flush system! Anyway, braving all the odds of all kinds, he reached London (P. 296) in the morning of November 4, 1954 - a brighter day of soft sun shine; he had in his pocket 10 shillings-equivalent to Rupees Six and a half! 

Ved was guided by his friend Narayan to find his feet in the quite different life of London. He could manage to get various type of manual jobs including a stint in the mortuary to ‘care and carry’ dead bodies. He was able to find company of Indian students and enrolled himself in School of Oriental and African Studies. Soon the doors of many other eminent institutions and organizations opened for him. A chance meeting with Sylvia, an American student of Hindi, in December 1956 developed into intimacy and culminated in marriage in July 1957. They were blessed with a son, who was named Sanjay, on January 23, 1958 (To the immense delight of Ved, it was Neta Ji Subhas’s birth Day). The couple then decided to move to the USA in December 1958.  The reader will be amply rewarded to study the First Part as an authentic socio-cultural documentation of the life of that period in the region of Western Uttar Pradesh. Ved’s descriptions of the various friends in London - some of them, including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, RS Sharma and SC Dubey, later became iconic academicians in India - and the prestigious British institutions during his four years of stay in London are indeed deeply instructive and most enjoyable.

Book 2 - पंचवटी के खोज में

The Second Part of the Autobiography titled, 'In Search Of Panchvati' (The mythological Woodland in Ramayana) comprises of 40 Chapters covering 319 pages. The mingling with Silvia’s larger family - including her three married sisters, parents and grandparents - was full of interesting experiences for Ved in understanding the life styles and cultural contours in the USA. He could initially get job in a mental hospital as a nursing assistant. He also joined Boston University to learn Russian language where he also met Amiya Chakravarty - one time secretary to RN Tagore. A daughter Aruna, named after the Indian revolutionary in the Quit India Movement, was born in March, 1959. During this period, the American political scene was witnessing new developments surcharged with a different atmosphere in the wake of the Presidential election. Ved had felt drawn towards the comparatively liberal Democratic Party and the emergence of the candidature of youthful John F. Kennedy and his victory surely gladdened him. The movement for the Civil Rights of the Black people in the USA certainly attracted the Gandhian Ved. He was delighted on receiving the offer, in January 1962, to join University of Colorado as an Assistant Professor to train the Peace Corps Volunteers to be sent to India and Pakistan. He had an enjoyable and purposeful time in the job. The year 1963 brought many happy tidings for him - including birth of the fourth and the last child - named Jaidev; Sanjay’s finishing nursery class - and purchase of the First car! (P. 99). Then in September 1963, Ved was offered the position of Professor of Hindi by the University of California, Berkley. He accepted the appointment with a great enthusiasm. He was impressed by the cosmopolitan character of the larger place though he also missed the intimate intensity of life in smaller Colorado. The most shocking assassination of President John Kennedy and several policies of President Johnson - particularly the escalation of war in Vietnam - deeply disappointed Ved. He was inspired to join the various protest movements in the USA for Civil Right and world Peace. He had felt impressed by the struggle waged by Caesar Chavez for the rights of the farm laborers (Chapter 29). He had also to undertake intense personal struggle against the authorities of the University for their biased and racially discriminatory decisions. Meanwhile, Ved’s two major proposals for funding - to the Department of Education for - Text to Learn Hindi and to the American Institute for Indian Studies for a research Project in India - were approved. He resigned his position in the University of California. The stay in Berkeley had made him deeply involved as a lifelong crusader to highlight the sacrifices of the patriots of the Ghadar Movement - with the 19 year martyr Kartar Singh Sarabha in the forefront - operating from there in the Second decade of the Twentieth century. 

Book 3 - देश-परदेश सब बिराना है  

The Third Part of the Autobiography, evocatively titled, 'Home-land or Distant-land: All are Desert-Waste-Lands', is slightly shorter than the other three - it comprises of 24 chapters covering 272 pages. It opens with an interesting observation by Ved: "I had thought that my time in India would be spent in peace and comfort but it appears that I have not been born to lead such a life. My circumstances and ‘sanskaar - inherited instincts’, as if, would never permit that such a situation should ever occur." He narrates the course of events triggered by the movement started by Jai Prakash Narayan which culminated into the imposition of Emergency by PM Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. Ved‘s dearest brother ‘Poojya Agrej - His Worship, the eldest’ Master Sunder Lal Ji, a pious Gandhian and a dedicated social reforms activist had also to suffer imprisonment for 19 months under inhuman conditions. Ved felt disgusted and disappointed with many of his eminent friends and he has not felt shy to name - and shame - those who had felt too timid to stand up against the suppression of fundamental rights of the people in India. The 19 month old Emergency was over and-to the utter disbelief of the world - the Congress led by Mrs. Gandhi was routed. The JP blessed newly formed Janata Party Government, however, failed miserably to come up to the expectations of the people. It collapsed under its own dead weight of quarrels, false egos and mutual back-stabbings among its degenerated old leadership - paving the path for a roaring return to power by Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1980. Ved had, however, been shaken completely, on the eve of the 19th anniversary of his wedding on 20th July, 1976 - by a totally unexpected ‘seismic’ personal shock.  Sylvia had written to him, “You will be as grievously sad to read this letter as I have been in writing it... we have reached a stage when we cannot live together...”, adding that he should  speak to her lawyer on the given telephone number. Ved felt shattered; children were dazed and confused; but he did not want to fight an ugly legal case. He did not make any counter legal claims in the case and divorce was legalized on December 15, 1976. 

Ved had come to India for a few months in 1977 to ‘recover’ from the shattering shock of his life. He utilized various opportunities for an extensive interaction with many top politicians in the government of the Janata Party and had deeper discussions with several eminent literary figures. He was a prominent participant in early 1980 in a Conference in Mysore on ‘Indo-American Folk Lore’. This occasion provided him a very useful opportunity to explain how the western methodologies and frame work of reference unduly dominated the approaches in India to the studies of all the social sciences. He also undertook extensive study tours of the various other southern states. Meanwhile, most mysteriously, many of Ved’s friends and relations became hyper active to propose a second marriage to him with some suitable Indian lady - ‘an American Daamad - son-in-law’ was indeed considered a prize catch; the harbinger of an, ‘American - synonymous with Heaven - Dream come true!’ How a close old friend proposed an ‘ideal match for our broken-hearted poet’ - with an amazingly appropriate name, Kalpana! She was a very pretty woman, in her 31st year; it was mentioned that she had recently become a widow, and had two daughters. Ved’s quicker paced narration details how he was tricked to marry in an indecent haste. She turned out to a personification of all the oddities and so many intrigues and dark secrets - he mentions even her ‘big appetite for sex’!

Their roller-coast time together for eighteen month could be termed an inflammable stuff with so many deceptions on the part of the lady and even her two smaller children. The short part of Ved’s life can certainly be described as the stuff fit for producing ‘heroine-vamp-double-role’ box office hit Bollywood masala film, with location shootings in the USA! This most mysterious chapter in the life of our poet-hero still awaits the formal-final-closure - she was known to have even given birth to Ved’s son!!  The third Part further extensively deals with several events in India - like the World Hindi Conference in 1983; strange twists in the lives of so many talented friends; activities of the Khalistanis and major developments in the USA including the War with Iraq over Kuwait in January 1990. He was deeply disturbed with the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992 and organized protests against growing communalism in India. The graduation of younger daughter Sunita with Physics and Math was a great comfort and pride for Ved, who celebrated his 60th birth day in April, 1991. Meanwhile Ved had got deeply immersed in high lighting the heritage of the Ghadar Movement by organizing regular activities not only in America and Canada but also promoting the memories of the Ghadarites in India. Incidentally, I had also got the pleasant opportunity to know him during the Ghadr Centenary Seminar organized by Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in November, 2013.  

Book 4 - घर ही कारागार बन गया 

Coming to the Fourth - not yet formally called the Final - part of Autobiography, titled 'Home itself Turned into a Prison', deals with Ved’s thoughtful account of various personal, national and world events during 1995-2015. The project of bringing a group of students from the USA for a study tour in India proved a successful experience. The birth centenary of Kartar Sarabha was celebrated in 1996 with several functions in the USA. The participants included Prof. Harish Puri of the GND University Amritsar and Prof. Jagmohan Singh (son of Shahid Bhagat Singh’s sister) of the PAU, Ludhiana - Sarabha village is situated in the neighborhood of this beloved city of Sahir. Jagmohan is a prominent human rights activist (P. 18). Ved organizes a forceful front against efforts by the Khalistanis to distort its ideals and history. He had felt outraged over the increasing divisions among Indian community into the narrow sectarian and caste based groups. He was conferred, in August 1996, the award by the Hindi Institute of the Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, for his contribution to Hindi Literature as a ‘Pravasi - Non-Resident-Indian author’-his friends celebrated this recognition, more than him! Ved does not mince words to express his views against the policies of the AB Vajpayee led government. He was particularly upset and dismayed over the conduct of the Nuclear Tests by the nation calling Gandhi Ji its Father. Ved has been, personally, no admirer of Atal Bihari’s oratory and considers him a hypocrite and communalist - not a statesman but a salesman. He even campaigned against him in Lucknow in the general election in 2004. He was, however, utterly disappointed by the poor organization, political strategy and the total lack of will among the opposition parties to win the confidence of the voters. 

Meanwhile, the ‘terrorist’ attack - on September 11, 2001 - on the World Trade Centre, the iconic symbols of ‘America-God’s own country’ had changed overnight the entire global political atmosphere. Ved’s indignation over the series of bloodiest wars waged by the USA against innocent citizens in so many countries, Afghanistan and Iraq in particular - has found thoughtful expression in several of his poems - P.85-91. On the level of his personal life, the circumstances enabled Ved to spend more time with his younger children Jaidev and Sunita. Meanwhile, his larger and extended family in India with the grown up new generation was developing strains with signs of inevitable disintegration. His large circle of friends in the USA were keen to offer him any assistance in the eighth decade of his life. He shares many touching tales of friends and his sense of deep loss with passing away of several of them, "the vacuum in my heart had been growing bigger since the dawn of 21st century (P. 128)... sometimes I felt as if my heart was a huge graveyard and I have been cremating the memories of the soulmates in it since the age of nine years...” - P.163. Ved quotes a memorable shae’r, "Meri Qismat mein gham ‘gar itne thhe / dil bhi ya Rabb kaee diye hote!" He, however, also records that 20th of May, 2009 was one of the happiest days of his life - P.181. I was the day when the Centre for South Asian Studies, in the University of California, organized a function, 'Celebration of Life and Work of a Poet' to honor and felicitate him. Ved recalls with pride how, he had started a grim struggle against the policies of racial discriminatory and intellectual imperialism in the University, ‘The white supremacy of the intellectual empire lasting half a century had been decimated. I was proud that I had a hand in this transformation and that the first crucial move in that direction was mine.’ The year 2010 had brought various tensions for Ved emanating from the evolving relations among the grown up children of his clan in Meerut. He had, however, decided to return permanently to India, much against the advice of well-meaning friends both in Meerut and in the USA, 'you will get devalued the moment you return.' They pointed out that ‘not to be an American citizen’ was also a folly. But he expressed confidence that he would be able establish himself as an independent author and academician. After making suitable arrangements for his papers and books, he undertook the long travels by rail for ‘Farewell Round of the USA.’ Ved describes in memorable words how he returned for good into the lap of ‘Bharat Mata’ on March 29, 2011 - having departed from Meerut on October 13, 1954 (P. 211). The last Five chapters in this fourth part make an uncomfortable and painful reading with Ved getting deeply disgusted and disillusioned over the soul scorching quarrels in his clan - a la descendants of Lord Krishna - and atmosphere of increasing intolerance in the country! The Epilogue - two poems of exquisite beauty about the tragic juxtaposition of character and destiny - provide us ‘virat roopa - multiversal form’ of the tormented soul of our Maha Kavi.

Ved Ji - the name itself indeed invokes the mythological master creator of Mahabharata - has honestly - often deeply painfully and quite bluntly chronicled the vicissitudes in the lives of several generation of his clan - and would seem consequently suffering the fate of Bhishama in Mahabharata. The reader of today might judge him harshly for his scriptural emotional attachments and failures in striking a harmony in competing relationships. He has been very fair in assessing and accepting the changing sexual and family mores in the post-2nd World War USA. The long running commentaries on the post-Independence politics in India could be adjudged more ‘poetical’ than perceptive analysis of the complex socio-economic forces. It is to his great credit that he has not been timid to spare likes of Chaudhary Charan Singh with their ‘feudal, murderous and caste prejudiced’ mind sets. He has been careful in pointing out fault lines of electoral politics since the First General elections in 1952. He has courageously underlined the all-pervasive oppression of Dalits / Adivasis by the unscrupulous upper castes. A reader more seriously interested in this uniquely Indian societal disease to go to Vatuk’s epic poetry in ‘Uttar Ram-katha’ and ‘Abhishapat Dwapar’  for profound references to the cancerous civilizational wounds inflicted by the caste divides on the destiny of India. The solitary reference to Dr B.R. Ambedkar in the Autobiography - Part1, P. 252 - might, however, appear more to be based on some hearsay - and, factually, Dr Ambedkar had resigned as Law Minister before the 1952 General Elections and he had been himself defeated, according to some accounts, by adopting unfair practices. It would seem rather paradoxical that that the authorship of both the Mahabharata and Ramayana is attributed to so called ‘Shudras’ - Ved Vyas and Valmik! One might imagine that Ved’s next poetic epic would celebrate the titanic struggle of an ‘Untouchable icon’ relevant to Today’s India. Ved has been a shrewd and intimate witness to all the amazing - alarming too - changes in human life during his own life: it has been pointed out that that the speed of changes, with the information technology in the forefront, during the last five decades has been, perhaps, more than the last five centuries, or even more! We await and pray for more sublime poetry during the days ahead from Dr. Ved Prakash Vatuk’s mighty, beautiful and justice-loving mind!           

To sum up, I may earnestly state that it has been a deep delight and great instruction for me - and my wife, Aradhana - to study this land mark Autobiography of a heroic-poet - with his character reminding us of the many of Shakespeare’s heroes - suffering with their subtle tragic flaws - hamartia - but emanating that rare ennobling fragrance of the soul. The Four Part ‘precious life blood’ of Dr Ved Prakash ‘Vatuk’ would seem to be calling for equally heroic readers to read this major work of Indian Literature to be published in 2018.        

More about Prof. Ved Prakash 'Vatuk':

• Kira Hall's Preface to Dr VP Vatuk writings (PDF file)
• Book Review: Studies in Indian Folk Tradition by Dr VP Vatuk (PDF file)
• Videos: Poet's Justice... Vatuk reciting poetry!

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Gajnesh Sandesh - January 2018

This is Punjabi-English magazine was published on January 2018

A publication of:
Sant Pramatmanand Academy of Creative Excellence (SPACE)
Sant Pramatmanand Rachnatmic Sreshta Sansthan

Cover Page of Magazine

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Contents
ਸੰਪਾਦਕੀ ਚਿੰਤਨ : ਪ੍ਰੇਰਣਾ ਸਰੋਤ ਤੇ ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਵ	ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ	2
ਇੱਕ ਇਤਿਹਾਸਕ-ਪਰਿਵਾਰਿਕ ਪੱਤਰ	ਵੈਦ ਭੂਸ਼ਨ ਪ੍ਰਮਾਤਮਾਨੰਦ ਜੀ	3
ਪੜੋਤ੍ਰੇ ਵੱਲੌੰ ਉੱਤਰ-63 ਸਾਲ ਬਾਅਦ	ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ	5
ਮੇਰਾ ਪਿੰਡ 'ਫਲੌੰਡ' ਤੇ ਮੇਲਾ ਲੋਹੜੀ ਦਾ	ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ	6
ਮਾਲ 2000 ਦੀ ਹਾਰਦਿਕ ਵਧਾਇ	ਸ਼ੰਕਰਾਨੰਦ	7
ਗਾਂਧੀ ਸਕੂਲ ਦੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਅਧਿਆਪਕ	ਡਾ. ਹਰਨੇਕ ਸਿੰਘ ਕੈਲੇ	8
ਸ਼ੁਭ ਕਾਮਨਾ ਸੁਮਨ ਮਾਲਾ	ਪ੍ਰੋ. ਕੇ. ਐਲ. ਰਤਨ	9
ਸ਼ੰਕਰਾਨੰਦ ਜੀ ਦੀ ਕਾਵਿ ਪ੍ਰਤਿਭਾ		10
ਦੋ ਗ਼ਜ਼ਲਾਂ	ਅਮਰਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਿੱਧੂ	10
ਸੁਥ-ਸੁਨੇਹੇ - ਪੁਸਤਕ ਰੀਵਿਊ	ਬਲਬੀਰ ਮਾਧੋਪੁਰੀ	11
ਬੀਤੇ ਨੂੰ ਆਵਾਸ਼ਾਂ - ਕ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਨ ਅਸ਼ਾਂਤ	ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ	12
ਹਨੇਰੇ ਥਿ਼ਲਾ਼ਢ ਲੜਦਾ ਸ਼ਖ਼ਸ : ਐੱਸ.ਤਰਸੇਮ	ਕੇ.ਐਲ. ਗਰਗ	14
ਓਲੰਪੀਅਨ ਡਾ. ਅਜਮੇਰ ਸਿੰਘ	ਜਗਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਪੰਧੇਰ	15
I Love My 'Un-Partitioned' India	Rashid Latif Ansari	17
The Journey of My Life	Dr. Yogendra Pal Anand	19
Independence in My School	Dr. Jaswant Singh	21
Ahmedgarh - Story of a Grain Market Town	A.L. Jain	22
My Career as a Doctor	Dr. D.K. Batta	23
Expressions of Freedom - Introduction	Bal Anand	24
Revisiting School - Five Decades Later	Bal Anand	25
My Childhood in Ahmedgarh	Dr. K.K. Chexal	27
A Short Profile	Bal Anand	28

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A Tribute to a Teachers' Teacher

Prof. Pritam Singh Ji

As a life long industrious student of the various disciplines of humanities with particular focus on world literature as my post graduation; spirituality in humanity as family heritage and International Relations as my profession, I have always deemed myself as one of the most privileged disciples of Professor Pritam Singh Ji (Jan. 11, 1918 - Nov. 25, 2008), without ever attending his formal class! He had indeed become the tall human tower - a light house in Patiala - as an  eminent teacher and an extraordinary, an encyclopedic, scholar of not only Punjabi language and literature but the entire range of the composite cultural and literary heritage of humanity.

Prof. Pritam Singh had been an inspiration for generations of students of Punjabi literature till he breathed his last. He was one of the stalwarts among teachers who had been a witness, as a bright student with the most meager means, to the best of the 'un-partitioned' - of the Five Rivers - Punjab. For me, he signified an era - that is no more - of the most enlightening literary pursuits in Punjabi. He had come to personify a rare dedication to bring alive the glory of Punjabi, cutting across all the narrow divides of the dangerous mix of religion and politics with the mother tongue of the brave Punjabis. I was indeed  singularly fortunate to be in his close contact-in the ancient Guru-Shishya tradition. He remained a 'Pole Star' of guidance for me in the matters of our deeply shared mutual interests in the global contexts of languages, literature and all the myriad faiths of the people.

I vividly recall how, as a student of B.A. in the D.A.V. College Jalandhar - some time around November, 1962 - I had the first Darshan - a face to face glimps - of Professor Pritam Singh. He was presiding over an important meeting of the Kendriya Punjabi Lekhak Sabha. The meeting had soon degenerated into an uproar of noisy shouts with even the signs of clenched fists for physical fighting- between the dominant progressive writers led by the veteran Marxist S.S. Sekhon and the silver-tongued orator Comrade Jagjit Singh Anand on the one side and the promising upcoming exponents of the new-wave-experimental Poetry including Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia and Sukhpalvir Singh Hasrat. Professor Pritam Singh, impressively attired in black achkan and chooridar, reprimanded them all in chaste Punjabi, using even typically strong phrases like 'Kanwarauli, kanjarkhana, kuttekhani', etc.  The eloquence, tactfulness and firmness displayed by the Professor from Patiala had the desired effect and it turned out to be a memorable session of lively discussions interspersed with sparkling and learned interventions of wit and humour by the Chair. I, an undergraduate student, had become an anonymous life long admirer of this Professor from Patiala for his radiant charm, scholarship and unshakeable belief in order and discipline.

It was, however,  as a student of M.A. (English) in the Government College - with no needless S.C.D. prefix then - Ludhiana, perhaps, in October 1964, that I read Balwant Gargi's pen-portrait of Professor Pritam Singh in Aarsi, then a popular Punjabi monthly, alas, has ceased publication since May, 2000. Gargi, in his inimitable style laced with subtle satire and humour, had referred to the rare qualities of Professor Pritam Singh as an 'obsessed' researcher of the old manuscripts of the Punjabi language and the evolution of the Gurmukhi script. Around the same time; Professor Pritam Singh had been transferred to the College as Head of the Punjabi Department.

Prof. Pritam had been assigned by Principal K.S. Thapar, interestingly, to deliver lectures for all the students of the College, in the main lecture hall now named after old student Sahir, on the themes of National Integration, introduced under a scheme of Government of India in the wake of war with China. Again, Professor Pritam Singh was at his best both in oration and the subject matter. One day, I gathered enough courage to speak to him requesting him to visit my home to meet my father and have a look at various hand written old books in Gurmukhi in our family.  He indeed gracefully agreed and visited our home in Ahmedgarh on Jan. 24, 1964. He had an engaging exchange of views with my father, an Ayurved practitioner and a scholar of Sanskrit and classical literature. I also arranged his meeting with my school teacher Shri Ashni Kumar, a Lahore educated reputed learned man. Professor Pritam Singh wrote to me a post-card, in English, thanking me for arranging the visit and praised my teacher as a person of, 'deep scholarship and disarming courtesy' - the last phrase was indeed an ever lasting lesson for me and made me his dedicated disciple for life.

The time rolled on, I passed my M.A. in English and was delighted to achieve my dream of becoming a lecturer, first in DAV College, Jalandhar and later on Govt. College, Bathinda. It was as a lecturer in Bathinda that my contact was re-established with Professor Pritam Singh. I had to accompany another respected scholarly personality, Professor Harmandar Singh, an eminent teacher of Political Science, who had also been transferred to Bathinda, for his meeting with Professor Pritam Singh, then Principal of Government College, Faridkot. It was in November, 1968 and the time of elections to the Punjab University Senate / Syndicate. Professor Harmander Singh was upset that Principal Pritam Singh had switched to the constituency of Registered Graduates instead of the Principals, making a clash between the two great old friends inevitable. It was a mix of tension and learning for me to be a listener to the arguments between the two of my most respected Professors. After lengthy discussions, Professor Pritam Singh appeared to have convinced Professor Harmander Singh that there was sufficient space for victory for both of them in the larger constituency of the Registered Graduates. While walking with us to the Railway Station to see us off, in the 'rush of the continued arguments', he also decided to accompany us to Bathinda. We had to speak to the Guard that, in a hurry, we could not buy the tickets. Reaching Bathinda, I went to the guard to pay him the amount of tickets. Professor Pritam Singh, with a twinkle of an eye and a trade mark smile, said to the guard, "Badshaho, Eh Jhoote Tan Hoon Tohadi Bakshish 'ch hi aouon dio – let this swing-ride be under your kingly generosity!" The guard also laughed heartily and we came out thanking him. Around the time of the dinner, I requested Professor Pritam Singh that we should go to the nearby restaurant. He replied that he had his dinner in train when he was eating the 'Chholia', i.e., the green-peas of grams, taken directly from the plants!

There was again a long interruption in our correspondence after I joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1971 and moved to Delhi and many postings abroad. It was during my posting as the Deputy High Commissioner in the neighbouring Pakistan (September, 1992 - November, 1994) that we could resume our intense interaction, particularly in the context of the preparation Punjabi Lekhak Kosh – Directory of Punjabi Writers. I could contact several Punjabi writers and activists in Lahore and Islamabad to collate information for inclusion in the Directory. Prof. Pritam Singh was gracious to mention my name in the list of the persons who helped him in compiling the book which was published in 2003. Prof. Pritam Singh always replied at length to my letters regarding my observations on the shared heritage of the Punjabis and how the bond of language could be strengthened in the face of evolving complex and challenging circumstances. He had a large circle of friends and admirers in Pakistan and his deep knowledge of Persian and Urdu languages proved an immense asset as a bridge between the two Punjabs and the national and international forums..

It was after reading my long letter, in Punjabi, 'Battan Beete Vareh dian - Matters of the Year that is past', circulated in December, 1995 to my close circle of friends that he specifically directed me that I should seriously plan to write about my experiences, in Punjabi, when I am free from the burden and worries of the Service. In view of his failing eye sight, the correspondence got restricted and confined to brief and urgent e-mails. After my retirement in 2004, I availed the privilege of speaking to him more often  whenever there was some matter of mutual interest. He would again remind me of the promise I had made with him to write in Punjabi. I once said, 'Sir, there is so of much high quality writings available to read, it becomes difficult to discipline oneself and find a time to write'. He smiled and retorted, 'that is the tragedy of Punjabi, Bal Anand Ji... those who should be writing, say they have no time from reading; but those who should be reading more, go on writing more and more!'

Meeting on Jan. 11, 1999 - 81st Birthday of Prof. Pritam Singh

My last meeting with Professor Pritam Singh took place in the late evening of 1st October, 2008. He appeared some what frail and time - worn but his profundity of expression, smile and laughter were indeed as intact as ever. I had presented to him 'Diwan-e-Hafiz' brought from Iran - the 'Blue book' in the picture and my write-up in Punjabi on the popular 'Chhapar Fair of Punjab' and my recent columns on Urdu poets and scholar A.J. Zaidi and Ahmad Faraz. We touched upon the current educational and cultural scene in Punjab and in the country. When I took leave of him, he persisted in walking with me the up to the main gate. I mentioned to him - at the door step - that Panth must think of establishing a museum of letters, with name, 'Zafar Namah Sahib Bhawan', inviting Punjabis all over the world to donate letters on the themes of literature and culture of Punjab - to be scientifically preserved there.

I penned my last letter to Professor Pritam Singh, on 24th of October, a day before his joining the company of the immortals, sending it care of his daughter Doctor Harshinder Kaur so that she might read it out to him. The Destiny of this letter was fated  to be different - reaching him on the address far, far beyond his earthly abode! I salute this angel of a Teacher on his birth centenary - he indeed radiated knowledge and nobility with every word spoken by him!

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A Life Enshrined as a Pilgrimage of Love

This article was published in the July 2015 edition of Identity magazine.

Amrita Pritam

An enigmatically popular and proverbially ‘pretty-petite-poet’ of the partition-poisoned five rivers of the historic Punjab, Amrita Pritam - b. Aug. 31, 1919; d. Oct. 31, 2005 - had indeed enjoyed a larger than life image as one of the most prominent literary personalities of modern India. She was widely recognised as a pioneer, powerful and an authentic voice of feminine protest in expressing the horrors of the Partition of her beloved Punjab and the eternally atrocious gender discriminations in the globally patriarchal social orders.

She had subtly succeeded in cultivating and nourishing a significant constituency of readers and a large circle of influential individuals surpassing divides of languages and national boundaries. She had been conferred the most sought after honours including the Padma Vibhushan and the membership of Rajya Sabha, not to speak of Jnanpith Award and dozens of honorary Doctorates and other prestigious distinctions in India and abroad. She had indeed been deservedly hailed to have lived her life to the fullest as the ‘grand lady of letters’ - on her own terms - both in her literary accomplishments and the ultimate fulfilment of her socially unconventional love.

And, yet there were deeper perceptions among both her ardent admirers and determined detractors of an apparently vast void in her life. It was something of the agonisingly soulful kind - her wounded and bleeding feminine destiny and an unfathomable anguish over implied disapproval of her way of life among her dearest and nearest. Amrita’s life could certainly be categorised as the ‘mysteriously volcanic and an eerie dreamy stuff’ of which strange tales of romance, triumph and tragedy are made of. Her enormously large literary output - 21 anthologies of poetry, 10 collections of short stories and, surprisingly, 25 novels, not to speak of three titles of autobiographical writings, have all been hugely interpreted in terms of their excruciatingly experienced personal emotional overtones.

Amrita had indeed played a uniquely inspirational role for decades in spotting and grooming so many budding and promising Punjabi writers, providing them the forum of her popular monthly Nagmani - Serpent’s Jewel. The Punjabi Lekhak Kosh, 2003 - A Directory of Punjabi Writers, edited by the venerable scholar Prof Pritam Singh - has more than three pages of the entries of her writings in original Punjabi and translations in dozens of Indian and foreign languages.. Her abode for decades - K-25, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - had remained an extraordinary literary pilgrimage till her last for her dedicated readers, fraternity of writers, fellow travellers, sisters in sorrow - from India and abroad - and plain ‘Darshanarthis - the onlookers of her magnetically pretty looks!

I do vividly recall how, as an elementary school - child, I had chanced to read her poem - a pretty picture of her adorning it - in a Punjabi monthly ‘Veer Bhumi’, sometime in 1950. Then for a several years in the mid-1950s, her measured and soft voice as an anchor of the 15 minutes program in Punjabi on All India Radio, Delhi had become captivatingly familiar, as if in uniting the two sparring, grieving and singing Punjabs. It was, however, on 22nd November 1970 that there was an opportunity for me to listen to her live. It was during the Mushaira of the Golden Jubilee of my college - Govt. College, Ludhiana - Sahir’s own proud alma mater.

Sahir Ludhianvi

The Mushaira, compered by the legendary Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi, had started on a note of an absolute disaster of ‘Band-o-bast’. The restrictive arrangements of entry tickets had crumbled in no time in total chaos. Anyway, the huge and roaring audience, by then more in a rebellious mood to hoot than to listen, had consolation of having glimpses of shining star poets like Jan Nisar Akhtar, Mohan Singh and Amrita Pritam doing the empty ritual of recitation of their poems. Even Shiv Kumar Batalavi, the prince among new poets, had to be cajoled to recite her poem after an initial hooting. However, Sahir - the ‘old- boy-hero’ of the College in 1930s - had mesmerised all with his poem titled, ‘Ae Nai Nasl - O, New Generation’, dedicated to Principal Pritam Singh and addressed to all the past and present students. Sahir was indeed at his magical best when he poetically pierced into the hearts of the Ludhianvi audience with the lines:

Naam mera jahan jahan pahuncha / saath pahuncha hai iss dyaar ka naam.
Main yahan mezban bhi, mehman bhi / app jo chahen dijie mujhe naam.
Nazar karta hun in fizaon ko / apna dil, apni rooh, apna kalaam...
Kal jahan main tha, aaj tun hain vahan / Ai, Naee nassl! Tujh ko mera Salaam!

 
My golden College of that day, now named after ‘old-boy-scientist’ Satish Chandra Dhawan and with the main Hall named after Sahir, is struggling to breathe - and survive to celebrate its Centenary due in 2020!

My ‘real and historic’ Amrita moment was, however, destined to be on August 31, 1992, just on the eve of my departure for Pakistan, as India’s Deputy High Commissioner. Pandit Krishan Ashant, the poet-philosopher turned Jyotishcharya - astrologer - an intimate good old friend of my family had kindly taken me and my wife Aradhana to pay a respectful courtesy call on her. I had asked Amrita about some Pakistani writers whom I might meet.  She had mentioned a few names including some of women friends based in Lahore and short story writers Mansha Yaad and Mazhar Khan who was Director of the popular Pakistani Folk Art Museum, Virsa. Imroz, an incarnation of serenity and sincerity, was around and had kindly served us the famously mandatory magical tea. We had felt privileged that we had the good luck to preserve forever the precious memory of Mulaaqat with an iconic figure, a veritable literary queen of her time!

The love legend of Amrita, particularly her self-confessed decades-long passionate attraction for Sahir, has been one of the most written about and celebrated affair in the popular literary imagination in India. The year 1960, according to Amrita’s own account, was the saddest time of her life. She mentions how the report in the ‘Blitz’ about ‘a new flame of love in life of Sahir’ had totally devastated her, plunging her into dark despair. This development had, perhaps, as if in a rebound, made it possible for Amrita to attach her destiny of ‘life-lasting-soulful-love’ with the younger painter friend, Inderjit. He was soon assigned the metaphorically popular name, ‘Imroz’ - the Persian word meaning ‘today’. This unique ‘undefined’ partnership of ‘understanding’ lasting more than 45 years proved to be the most intensely enduring for the mutual esteem, affection and awesomely creative in terms of Amrita’s literary output and picture perfect of ‘made-for-each-other-soul-mates’. Such supposedly ‘idyllic’ life would only be waiting to be sung and celebrated about, not only in sweet, sentimental and eulogistic notes but also to be written about in a plaintive and poetic mix of fiction and reality.

Ek Janam Tumhare Lekhe

The lives of writers and artists have indeed been a source of immense fascination everywhere -  not only for readers and audience but also for fellow writers and critics and commentators. In the case of writers, ‘aside from their works, there are even autobiographies, letters, diaries, and memoirs of those who knew them best... others have taken  it a step further, painting a  portrait of a literary genius through those who knew him / her best’. Enters here, Gurbachan Singh Bhullar (b. 1937), an eminent short story writer, editor, and columnist, Sahit Academy Awardee in 2005, with roots in Malwa region of Punjab. He had been an alert insider in the various forums of the Punjabi writers since arrival in the capital in 1967 to work in the Soviet Information Department. He would have been privy to all the literary intrigues, factional feuds, scramble for awards and personal rivalries that always plague the atmosphere of community of writers and artists everywhere. He enjoys reputation as one of the select writers in Punjabi who are well read in literature of other languages and are painstakingly diligent in paying attention to the most appropriate vocabulary and idiom in Punjabi. It is indeed very interesting how my most favourite short storywriter and columnist decided to be a novelist. Please permit me to quote from his own 11-pages declaration, ‘How and Why I wrote the novel, Eh Janam Tumhare Lekhe - This Life I lay at thy Feet’:

“18 of March 2014 was my 77th birth day... this juncture of life can often make a person sad, even frightened... but I had felt full of enthusiasm. I had conceived the woof and warp of my maiden novel and had started designing, naturally, the flowers and petals and even the thorns... Friends had often advised, ‘A short story writer attains perfection only by writing a novel... you have plenty of stories and experiences of social life and an appropriate idiom to tell them, you must write a novel’.”

Gurbachan S Bhullar

Bhullar quotes at length many foreign writers and critics to highlight the subtle points of crafts of short story and the novel. He cites examples from the narrative traditions of epics of India and folk tales of love and how human life revolves around Arth — subsistence, Kaam - sexuality and Dharam - morality. The four word title of the novel, according to Bhullar, was decided at the very beginning. It is taken from the hymn of celebrated Dali poet Bhagat Ravidas in the Granth Sahib, “Bahut Janam bichhure the Madho, eh janam tumhare lekhe - Separated since several births, O lord, this birth is solely dedicated to thee”. How the characters of the novel would stand up to the test of this dictum of total surrender was going to be challenge for the novelist. Bhullar asserts that there are no conventional individual hero or heroine in the novel: the moral restraints prescribed by society at large and their clash with the feminine way of thinking about freedom constitute the crux of the thematic world of this novel.

The protagonist of the novel is Jagdeep - a poet, does not pose much of a difficulty to be identifiable as Amrita Pritam. It is also, interestingly, the name of a character in her novel, ‘Ek Savaal - A Question’ who has a shade of Amrita in losing her mother an early age. The names of poet Mohan Singh (1905-1978) and Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) have been retained in the novel along with the use of their select poetry. To keep the fictional façade of Jagdeep intact, Bhullar has composed some poems himself and used some of the verses of Sukhvinder Amrit (B. 1963). The other characters - easily recognised among the ‘who is who’ of all the prominent friends - some turned foes - and relations of Amrita. They have been assigned meaningful names: Imroz as Inderjit-Charanjit-Navrang; her husband Pritam Singh becomes Gurmukh Singh; Bhapa Pritam Singh of Navyug Press is named Harprit Singh ‘Hiteshi’; Balwant Gargi is Kulwant Bani; Devinder (of AIR) as Harvinder, etc. The chapters about Editor of ‘Shamma’- name in novel ’Chiragh’- provide enjoyable comic and witty relief in enlarging character of Imroz’s earlier life. The cover design by artist Satwant Singh Sumail is indeed attractive in symbolising the theme of the novel - the feminine flutters for freedom of choices and the social constraints of moral behaviour.

It is after gap of many years that I have been able to read a novel in Punjabi running into exactly 400 pages. I had been presented the signed copy - ‘with intimate affection’ of the novel by Gurbachan Ji on March 16 and could finish it at my enjoyable pace on April 11, 2015. The seventeen parts of the novel, further subdivided into 3 / 4 chapters in each, make an engrossing reading with the ebb and flow events of a real life legend. Necessary liberties of the fictional kind have been taken here and there as required to enhance an atmosphere of verisimilitude. We get introduced to a gallery of unforgettable characters, majority of them ‘recreated’ after the real life dignitaries of Punjabi community of Delhi who had been closer to Jagdeep-Amrita!? - the protagonist of the novel. Since my first arrival in Delhi on June 16, 1969 and then 16 years - 11 of them consecutively now - of stay in Delhi, I have been witness to a procession of passing away of the pre-partition generation of so many distinguished Punjabis. They had been instrumental in shaping the contours of Punjabi literature and culture. The mindless violence for decades in Punjab; the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and the consequently continuously ‘shrinking’ role of the present truncated Punjab in the national life has posed serious new challenges to the traditionally imagined values of Punjabi literature and culture. Amrita, a purely Punjabi phenomenon, had passed away proclaiming herself, perhaps, as more popular ‘original author of Hindi’!

Gurbachan Ji had brought to my attention on November 15, 2014 his masterly article on Amrita Pritam published in the September-December issue of prestigious Punjabi quarterly, ‘HUN’ (Now) dwelling on the touching theme of ‘The Triple Death Tragedy’ of the ‘Priestess of Love’ in Punjabi literature. Apart from the natural death after a protracted sickness and a long confinement to bed, her abode of ‘love-nest’ so artistically adorned by ‘love mate’ Imroz was soon got torn apart brick by brick by Amrita’s ‘emotionally-conflicted’ son - he had once questioned his mother if he was indeed the ‘biological’ son of Sahir! He was mercilessly murdered on September 20, 2012 in shady circumstances in the mean world of Bollywood. I did not know at all - nor could imagine - that this article was a subtle precursor - curtain raiser - to Bhullar’s ambitious maiden novel on the eternal theme of human conflict: the fate of femininity fluttering for freedom against the gravitational forces of patriarchal social order. She was born as the only child of a reclusive and religious couple and married at sixteen in a closely related orthodox Khatri Sikh family. Amrita, according to Khushwant Singh, “was a pretty girl with almond shaped eyes, fine features... petite... barely five feet tall... she became the toast of Punjabi literary circles (of Lahore), largely because of her stunning good looks... Ode to Warish Shah was her defining work. Much of the rest was sheer atmosphere”.

To quote from Bhullar’s elucidatory article, Amrita had once put, in her peculiarly poetic way, “In all, I have had one and a half love affairs - one with Sahir and half with Jeeti... but his half is equal to Sahir’s one full!” Amrita had written, in Punjabi, her autobiography - rather disjointed chapters - titled ‘Raseedi Ticket - Revenue Stamp’ in 1976 - which has run into a dozen editions - three after her passing away. The Hindi editions might be even more. The translation in English - apparently a hurried and poor job - by Krishna Gorowara may still be quoted, “Imroz is six years my junior... God grants too brief (a) period of youth to one and all; to me He has, in His greatness, granted two! Mine petered off; Imroz’s came on! After fourteen years... I have no regrets about the path chosen by us”. Further, Amrita says that “Imroz’s personality is like the flow of a river uncontrolled by locks and sluices... a relationship with him can last only so long as there is nothing to bind it. Unfortunately, in life there is not much natural freedom. There is society and there is the law... My suffering is the lesser truth when weighed against the greater truth of happiness of life with him...”

Bhullar has proclaimed in the blurb of his novel-in its 2nd edition within six months of the 1st - exactly a similar dilemma with the  heroine representing “feminine-way-of- thinking, the centrality of which is the longing, the desire and an attempt to live a life according to the dictates - full freedom - of her mind”. He further adds that, “the feminine thought process, in majority of the cases, gets reconciled to the 'circumscribing limits' accepting them as 'Destiny' and suppressing the urge to 'fly' - but in stray cases there are revolts too...According to science, the astronauts, who break the sphere of the gravity of the planet earth, undergo a process of powerful effects on their body and mind, Whether, according to psycho-processes, the women who dare break the circle of 'social gravity' also undergo a similar transformation of their bodies and mind, is the moot point of this novel”.

Long, long ago, while studying for my post-graduation in English literature, I had immensely enjoyed the recommended slim book, ‘Aspects of the Novel’ by EM Forster. Originally published in 1927, it has remained my favourite book till today. Discussing at length the aspects of Story, People, Plot, Fantasy/ Prophecy, Pattern / Rhythm, the Nobel novelist elaborates on the themes of birth, food, sleep /dreams, love / marriage and death as the essential elements of the structure and craft of novel. Forster points out that love and marriage - the most defining event of human destiny turns out to be the most unpredictable development. The modern science has been hugely impacting our entire approach to love and sex but the scientists are still wondering to know, ‘what fosters long-term attachment... what, really, is this thing called true Love.’ The much used – rather abused - terms like romance, attraction, bonding, passion would seem to defy all reason and logic - that is the unique beauty, as well as the inexplicable tragedy in as many cases, in every culture and civilization.

In 2019, the literary and academic institutions in India would be gearing up to celebrate the birth centenary of Amrita Pritam. Bhullar’s novel has lit up the first candle for a really enlightening revaluation of the literary output of this dear daughter of Punjab. The debates would need be as broad based as the human reason and imagination can be stretched in the multidimensional contexts of the era she had belonged.

Blessed with Punjabi as my mother tongue, I may conclude quoting the following lines of Amrita - they have been my favourite since I took the first fearful and hesitant step into the imagination of my youth:

Pher tainun yaad keeta, agg nuun chumian asan;
Ishq piala zehar da, ik ghutt phir mangia asan …
Your memory has descended on me again, and I have kissed the flame;
I have asked for a sip again, out of the goblet of poison of love!    

Interview with Shri Diwanaji

This interview was recorded on September 2007, during the Chhapar Fair, by eminent film maker Shri Ajay Bhardwaj. Shri Deewana, born June 15, 1922 in Maherna, has narrated his life story - a great footballer, singer, dramatist, freedom fighter, social activist. He was imprisoned in Malerkotla, Layallpore, Ludhiana knew names of all friends, police officials, satyagraha movements; had met Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and worked closely with JP, Lohia, Narender Deva, Parwardhan, Aruna Asaf Ali and other socialist leaders; resorted to hunger strike for twelve days in 1954 for an elected management for School.
      

He could still sing old patriotic songs and self composed poems. He played role of Lachhmana in Ramleela where he used to get actually fainted. He was also offered the role of Sher Dil Dakoo in the film Bhabhi.

Tek Chand Deewana is a human monument of Ahmedgarh.

Author's family with Shri Diwanaji, 1994

Author and family with Shri Diwanaji, 20-11-1994