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Minoo, the true
bridge-buider Khushwant Singh
IT was a grievous
blow to those who strove to build bridges between Pakistan and India to
hear that Minoo Bhandara, ex-member of the Pakistan National Assembly, had
died.
Diljit Nagra on
his father Diljit Nagra
Upside down on his hands around the lounge,
this returned-from-the-boozer, pissed-up, trunk-necked and super-muscled
dodderer that palmed over the petals and stems of our red carpet would win
our gasps as he made his way down the grand-as-possible knocked-through
room of our three-bed semi. Then he'd straighten up for his steaming grub
with a plate of green chillies that he'd munch each night to prove what a
hard case he was ...
Paradise Lost
Book Review by Shafqat Tanvir Mirza
Prof Dr Harkirat Singh was for long haunted by the
feeling that justice had not been done to the people of East and West
Punjab who lost so much at the time of partition in 1947. Eventually, the
editor of Daily Tribune (Punjabi) prevailed upon him to write the story of
his own ‘paradise’ in the upper semi desert areas of Multan known as Ganji
Bar, one of the bar (wastelands) along with Sandal, Neeli and Keerana.
Amrita Pritam:
1919-2005 Raza Rumi
Amrita Pritam never woke up on
the afternoon of October 31, 2005 and the world is emptier without her
musings. She embodied the fullness of poetic expression, creativity and
the intensity of a woman in the perpetual state of love. Amrita’s voice
was rooted in the South Asian idiom with all its contradictions, diversity
and a faint recognition of fate.
An Animal Instinct
Bimal Inderjit Singh
The mercury had dropped to below
zero. It was cold enough to freeze the blood in their veins, hence the
people of the colony huddled in the warmth of their homes.
Punjabi Renaissance
Ishtiaq Ahmed
My essay last week "Punjabis
without Punjabi" (May 24) evoked very strong emotions – mostly full of
enthusiasm to do something to ascribe respectability to the Punjabi
language. Before I present some ideas on that theme, a few corrections are
in place with regard to basic data.
Punjabi:
keeping faith in mother tongue
Gobind Thukral
THERE is worrisome news
about the demise of the languages in this era of globalisation. One
language seems to be dominating, obliterating languages, dialects and
cultures in the process. Mortality rate of languages and more particularly
of dialects worldwide is very high. In April 2002 a UNESCO report had
said, “Out of Kenya's 42 indigenous languages, 16 of them have either
become extinct or are seriously endangered.
Punjabis Without
Punjabi Ishtaiq Ahmed
For quite some time now
reference is being made on both Pakistani and Indian Punjabi Internet
networks to a UNESCO report that allegedly predicts that in the next 50
years the Punjabi language will become extinct. I have tried in vain to
get hold of the report to make sure it is not a hoax.
The Beloved
Muhammad Afzal Shahid
Bullhe nun parhaya te oh sarangi phar
nacheya te ganveya. Tenun parhaya te tun ishqiya qisse likhe.’ (I taught
Bulleh Shah and he danced and sang playing a violin. I taught you and you
wrote a love story), were the alleged painful remarks of Hafiz Ghulam
Murtaza of Kasur to his student, Waris Shah, when the latter is said to
have tried to gain blessings of his beloved teacher on completing his
anthology of Heer.
A literary treasure of
epic import Book Review by Nadir
Ali
The residents of the city say
there are only three places worth visiting in Amritsar: the Sikh Golden
Temple, Jallianwalla Bagh where the British Brigadier Dyer in 1919
massacred unarmed Indians ---and the Wagah border. Indeed the
flag-lowering ceremony at the end of each day on the India-Pakistan border
at Wagah in Punjab has over the years become a tourist destination,
attracting predominantly Indians and Pakistanis on the respective sides of
the border, with a sprinkling of foreigners.
Wahga Border
Diljit Singh
The residents of the city say
there are only three places worth visiting in Amritsar: the Sikh Golden
Temple, Jallianwalla Bagh where the British Brigadier Dyer in 1919
massacred unarmed Indians ---and the Wagah border. Indeed the
flag-lowering ceremony at the end of each day on the India-Pakistan border
at Wagah in Punjab has over the years become a tourist destination,
attracting predominantly Indians and Pakistanis on the respective sides of
the border, with a sprinkling of foreigners.
Review on Javed Boota's
Book "Okha Kam" Book Review by
Kazi Javed
Maqsood Saqib's Suchet Kitab Ghar is
more than a publishing house. It has become sort of a Punjabi cultural
centre in Lahore where many intellectuals and writers gather for exchange
of ideas. In addition to publishing dozens of Punjabi-language books
during the past ten years or so, the Suchet Kitab Ghar also regularly
brings out the quarterly Punchem which is generally rated as the best
Punjabi journal published from our part of the Punjab.
Jalaluddin Rumi and his
Journey from Persia to Hollywood Satya
Pal Anand Christopher
Columbus was discovering America about the time that Jalaluddin Rumi’s
Sufi poetry was captivating Persia and the whole Muslim world. It had
taken just over 200 years for his words to spread through the Middle East.
The question for me is: Why did it take so many more centuries for Rumi to
reach America?
Poems of intense
indulgence Book Review by Abrar Ahmad
"I have gone through a report
prepared by Unesco which says the Punjabi language will disappear from the
world in 50 years. It shocked me. I am out to save Punjabi language and
culture," he said here today. He was invited by the Punjabi Bachao Manch
seeking his help to save Punjabi in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab, a state
carved on the basis of Punjabi language.
Punjabi language
will disappear in 50 years
Surjit Dhaliwal
"I have gone through a report
prepared by Unesco which says the Punjabi language will disappear from the
world in 50 years. It shocked me. I am out to save Punjabi language and
culture," he said here today. He was invited by the Punjabi Bachao Manch
seeking his help to save Punjabi in Chandigarh, capital of Punjab, a state
carved on the basis of Punjabi language.
Writing has no gender
Zaman Khan
A
staunch advocate of 'maan boli' (mother tongue), Nasreen is a
multi-lingual because she was born in Quetta, Balochistan, and raised in
Sindh. She writes famously in English, Urdu and Punjabi. She is also well
versed in Chinese and Russian literature.
Gehal Singh Chhajjalvaddi
Amarjit Chandan
In this painting all the
suggestions, including its title The Victim, are sinister – the
broken image, bloody background, twisted bicycle, 4x4 motor jeep, thick
deep line gashing in the landscape, the hills, the dark black sky on the
horizon – everything, except the imposing withdrawn gentle figure of a
man that tells that something terrible must have happened to him
Sati Kumar
News Report
Satish kumar Kapil alias Sati Kumar, who has
died of cancer aged 70 on 25 January in his home in Stockholm, was born in
1938 in the Malwa town of Rampura Phul in a Brahmin family of prouhits.
After his graduation in Punjab, he went to Delhi University for further
studies where he came in contact with stalwart Punjabi writers – Bawa
Balwant, Devinder Satyarthi, Harbhajan Singh, Harnam and above all Amrita
Pritam
Waris Shah and
sociology Shafqat Tanvir Mirza
SHAAISTA Nuzhat has done her masters in
philosophy on the sociological aspect of Waris Shah's poetry which,
according to her, is limited to the story of Heer-Ranjha, an actual
happening of the period of Behlol Lodhi in 1484 AD. Much before the birth
of Waris Shah in 1717, at least three versions of Heer were written in
Persian starting from Akbar's period and another five were written before
Waris Shah completed his writing in 1180 AH.
Dev Anand’s
Impressionist Years in Punjab
Harjap Singh Aujla
Documenting tradition
Book Review by Muhammad Jawad
Story telling is in the nature
of man. Symbols, signs, conventional and traditional usage of diction and
the moral content within a folk tale signify the collective consciousness
of the people of a particular culture. Short story in Urdu and Punjabi is
a borrowed art and has a strong connection with Russian, English or French
literature.
Rebel in black & white
Aditi Tandon
LAST
year on Kakori Day (December 19) Bhagat Singh quietly came alive in the
utterances of Malwinder Jit Singh Waraich from Chandigarh. The 78-year-old
chronicler of the revolutionary movement told overwhelming tales about the
lives of Bhagat Singh and his companions. Among them were Ram Prasad
Bismil and Ashfaqullah of the Hindustan Republican Army (HRA), who kissed
the gallows on December 19, 1927, a day Bhagat Singh never failed to
commemorate all his life.
A major addition
Nadir Ali
Shah Hussain stands tall among
the all time greats of the Punjabi poetry. Although not a definitive list,
they were Baba Farid, Guru Nanak Damodhar, Shah Hussain, Hafiz Barkhudar,
Sultan Baahu, Bulhe Shah, Waris Shah, Sachal Sarmast, Main Mohammad Baksh,
Khawaja Farid, Najm Hosain Syed, Bhai Gur Da, Qadir Yar and Najabat.
Savi pays poetic tribute
to the mother Jatinderpreet
It is a tribute to motherhood
by the acclaimed Punjabi poet and artist Swarnjit Savi that has been
brought together in a book form. ‘Maa’, the poetry book was released at a
function held on the first death anniversary of the poet’s mother here on
Sunday. Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal along with a galaxy of literary
personalities and artists was at hand to lend a gravitas to the occasion.
An Arain freedom
fighter Ishtiaq Ahmed
Punjab's reputation as a
loyalist province, which provided the British Indian Army with soldiers
and a solid socio-political support base in the form of a dependent landed
class, has eclipsed its rather variegated history, which includes heroic
tales of resistance to occupation and foreign rule throughout the ages.
Separated by
Partition, families long to meet Varinder
Walia
These are true-life tales of
families separated during Partition, building separate lives across the
India-Pakistan border, and then finding each other through determination
and luck.
South Asian Cooperation
And The Role Of The Punjabs Paramjit
Sahai
‘The South Asian Cooperation
and the Role of the Punjabs’ by Tridivesh Singh Maini is another addition
to the growing number of books on South Asian Cooperation and
India-Pakistan Relations. This Book, however, is a departure, as it looks
at the South Asian Cooperation and India-Pakistan relations through the
prism of the relationship between Indian-Punjab and Pakistan-Punjab.
Relevance of Bulleh
Shah Ayesha Siddiqa
A COUPLE of days ago I had a
chance to see Ajoka Theatre’s play ‘Bulleh’ in Islamabad. The stage play
was made on the life and spiritualism of the famous Sufi saint Bulleh Shah
who grew up in the town of Kasur near Lahore where some of the modern-day
rulers of the country come from.
He captured footage
of Vietnam war aftermath Sanjeev
Singh Bariana
Mohinder Singh Dhillon's is an inspiring
success story of an NRI Punjabi "Sir" who captured rare footage of the
Ethiopian famine and the aftermath of the Vietnam war. Work of Sir
Mohinder Singh forms part of the BBC and National Geographic Channel
archives, besides a number of international documentary libraries. Besides
scores of international awards, the ace photographer was knighted by the
Order of Saint Mary of Zion
A nostalgia of old
calendars Khaled Ahmed
In April this year, the people
of Bangladesh, celebrating the beginning of the year as Pehla Vaishakha,
were attacked by groups of religious fanatics, much in the same way as
their brothers in Pakistan attack the New Year celebrations on 31st
December. In Pakistan, Vaishakha or Baisakh is kept alive by the Sikhs who
visit Pakistan on their New Year.
Scripting a bond
Irfan Habib
The second edition of the
recently out quarterly ‘Saanjh’ is an enjoyable collection of short
stories, travelogues and poetry published in the Shahmukhi and Gurumukhi
scripts of Punjabi.
Thousands of Sikhs
celebrate Guru Nanak’s birthday Afnan
Khan
LAHORE: Thousands of Sikhs
visiting the country from across the globe celebrated the 539th birthday
of their father Guru Nanak Dev Jee at the Main Gurudawara Janam Asthan
with religious zeal.
Will Punjabi language
arise from the flames Like a Phoenix?
Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon
It is being noticed that
English has overtaken the Punjabi language and so have Hindi and Urdu.
There is a strong chance that the language will perish within 50 years in
its homeland. What makes this scenario more sad is the knowledge that
Punjabis themselves are to be blamed for it. It was hoped that as the
second most spoken language in the UK and the sixth in Canada, something
positive would come of it, but this does not seem to be the case. |
