L I T E R A T U R E

Between The Bosom Pals
Mother-daughter Dialogue in Verse
Dr. Jaspal Singh

B.S. BIR is a well-known Punjabi newspaper man. He brings out four journals from Nabha. “Mehrani” and “Ghar Shingar” are popular family magazines. Two other journals deal with agriculture, one of them being in Hindi. All the four journals are patronised by big business houses for advertisement. So financially Bir is rather well off. Apart from doing his usual editing work, he finds time to write stories and poems. He has already published five collections of poems, two collections of short stories, one novel and a biography.

Bir in his poems is more concerned with moral and environmental degradation. His latest collection of poems “Chaun Kunti Gutagun” (omnipresent cooing of the pigeons) published by Aarsi Publishers, Delhi is an intimate dialogue in verse between mother and daughter. In all the eleven poems of this collection mother and daughter express their apprehensions, fears, anxieties, trepidations and concerns about socio-cultural degeneration mainly caused by the reckless forces of globalisation and commercialisation of human relations.

The poems at places give vent to latent longings and aspirations of the mother daughter duo. In fact, the very first stanza of the first longish poem that covers thirty eight pages, begins with the daughter’s appeal to her mother to arrange for her a jolly and spirited groom so that her eyes sparkle like the sun and the moon. She says, “Uthh ni mai mehrame| Te uthh ke kaaj racha| Sajjan rangla dhund de| Jind suad ho ja.” (Wake up and rise my confidant mother and find a handsome spirited groom for me so that my life becomes delightful and gratifying.) Then the daughter goes on and on and while addressing the mother she comments on all the social evils. The mother, in course of time, becomes the omnipotent mother of mankind who is inspired and motivated into action to undo the depravity and wickedness that have crept into the social fabric. She exhorts her daughter to rise like a lioness to wipe out ubiquitous tyranny and cruelty in life.

The second poem in this collection is again addressed to the daughter. The poet has devised a unique way of expressing his feelings and ideas. The stanzas in this poem begin with the letters of Gurmukhi alphabets; hence the poem is titled as “Painti” (thirty five letters of the alphabet). Again the similar social and environmental problems are addressed. The daughter is overloaded with counselling and caution. From alphabets the poet moves on to the days of the week. Now the daughter takes the pulpit and the mother is made to listen. But the daughter does not pontificate, rather she comments on the destiny of modern man. She avers “Uthh ni mai budhhan laddie| Budhh na lainda sud| Swai-rache chakarviu’ch| Banda larh riha hai yudhh.” (My sagacious mother! just look at the reckless Wednesday. How man is fighting his battle for survival in the self-created turbulent maze.)

The days of the week are followed by the twelve months of the year. Here again the daughter does most of the chatting. This poem is also in the same vein and is a sharp comment on the changed moral milieu. English alphabets also make the beginning of stanzas in a poem. But the English language gets a severe beating and Punjabi is lauded in its comparison. In fact, the Punjabi language is projected as a symbol of Punjabi cultural heritage. A poem about ‘suicides’ talks about the glory of Punjabi culture which has come under severe strain unleashed by global market forces.

These poems are important because of the literary form that Bir has devised. The mother-daughter dialogue represents the voice of two cosmic forces which are striving for bringing about a functional equilibrium among the conflicting global values and principles.

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