culture

Indian Poetry Carnival-2006
Dr. Jaspal Singh

Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha is the largest and the most representative body of Punjabi writers and literary practitioners. At the moment it has 900 life members and 800 other casual members. The year 2006 is the Golden Jubilee year of this body that was organised 1956 at the initiative of Giani Hira Singh Dard, a dedicated Punjabi writer and a stalwart of Progressive Writers' Movement in Punjab.  Even before independence Punjabi writers' organizations had come into existence in various towns of Punjab. In 1926 Punjabi Poets Association had become active in Amritsar. Apart from this, there were writers associations in the towns like Jalandhar, Barnala, Nabha and Rampur.

Hira Singh Dard and his associates like Sant Singh Sekhon, Prof. Mohan Singh, Harnam Singh Shan, Giani Kesar Singh, Gurbaksh Singh Banuana, Avtar Singh Azad and a few others convened a conference of Punjabi writers in December,1956 at Jalandhar where a resolution was passed that all the Punjabi writers' associations dotted all over Punjab should be brought under one umbrella. As a consequence of this resolution, the first executive of Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha was democratically elected at Patiala. Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, a writer of national fame was elected as the president and Giani Hira Singh Dard, the general Secretary.

Punjabi writers living in all parts of the world represent this body of Punjabi writers. Illustrious men of letters like Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari, Giani Hira Singh Dard, Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Sadhu Singh Hamdard, Prof. Pritam Singh, Sant Singh Sekhon, Sujan Singh, Dr. Harcharn Singh, Gursharn Singh, Santokh Singh Dhir, Jagtar and so on have remained its presidents in the last half century. Similarly, writers like Prof. Mohan Singh, Kulwant Singh Virk, Dr. Attar Singh, Raghbir Singh, Dr. Ravinder Ravi, Tera Singh Chann and a few others have remained its general secretaries. The main objective of this association of Punjabi writers is to bring all the Punjabi writers under one roof so that they can pool their efforts for the development of Punjabi language, literature and culture. It means that Kendri Punjabi Lekhak Sabha is more of a literary movement than a mere association of writers to exchange their creations. Consequently, the Sabha, up to now has organised sixty impressive conferences, seminars and workshops. Twelve of such programmes had global participation in which writers like Serebriakov, Mariam Salganik, Ahmed Rahi, Shahin Malik, Kanwal Mushtaq, Fakhar Zaman, Taufiq Chugtai, Mulk Raj Anand, Yashpal, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Krishan Chander, Sajjad Zahir, Upinder Nath Ashq, Hazari Parshad Diwedi, Sardar Jafari, Namwar Singh, Bhisham Sahni, Kamleshwar and a galaxy of other well known writers participated.

Now as a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, a poetry festival was organised at Panjab University, Chandigarh on February 11 & 12, 2006. Poets from all modern Indian languages participated in this poetic carnival. A poem K.Sachidanandan from Kerala flows like this: -

                People who have faith in poetry,
                Neither joins a religious organisation
                Nor change their religion
                Since no idol is worshipped here.
                Nor do they quarrel over the name of an idol.
                There is no temple here
                So they don't demolish others' temples
                They drink poison all by themselves
                They remain shackled all by themselves
                Some times they are whipped as neurotics
                They invite jail, gallows, and gas chambers
                And electric shocks
                Yet they pray for the well being of the entire world.

Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh is professor emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and is one of the most decorated poets of India. He is more concerned with the working people of the country, who have really toiled hard to make a part of the country an island meant for the affluent only. Here is a sample of his meditation over the destiny of these people: -

                Alright, the work is over
                All the wood logs have been stacked
                One over the other in proper order
                All right, now you can go home
                But in fact nothing is all right
                The home you are heading for
                May not be there at all
                Nobody can guarantee you that
                Alright, you are walking on the road
                But think of your aching back
                Where do you plan to rest it?
                That is the problem.

Urdu poet and novelist Muzafar Hanfi, is a retired professor of 'Iqbal Chair', Kolkata University and is one of the leading Ghazalgos (writer of poems with rhyming couplets) of India. His poems bring out the irony and paradoxes of situations that an ordinary individual faces in his life. He avers: -

                He came to my residence,
                The arrow after all is placed
                On the bow-string
                People who make noises were astounded
                The tiger came straight to the loft
                To be shot.

There were scores of poets from different languages of India. They recited their compositions to a receptive audience. The poetry festival, in fact, was a fiesta in the Roman Catholic sense or  more so in the manner of Spanish bull-fighting carnivals which Ernest Hemingway was so infatuated with. Punjabi poets too had their day. They were warmly received and applauded by the poets from other parts of the country.