Contemporary Punjabi poetry has been struggling to deal with what it inherited; literary tradition. The literary tradition has been shaped by at least three vital elements; profound but accessible classical poetic expression, rich folklore and ethos of long-established agrarian society. So far it has not been fully able to unburden the tradition’s influence that heavily weighs on it. Poets generally tend to be folksy in their expression or cerebral. Shiv Kumar is a prime example of the former and Najm Hosain Syed of the latter. Our literary world hasn’t yet fully recognised the emerging urban pattern of social life. But in the works of some poets we can trace the beginning of realisation of how to square with this new way of life that has come to stay. Late Zamurad Malik’s poetry published in 1970s is one of the earliest efforts. Sadly, his contribution has been ignored in the cacophony of popular poetry. Another poet worth mentioning in this context is Irfan Malik who is free of baggage of what Karl Marx called ‘village idiocy’ romanticised by so many. Yet another poet who can be counted among the torch-bearers of this non-traditional trend is Surinder Sohal, a US-based poet and critic. A book of his poems titled “Ibaarat Chup Kayun Hai”, transliterated from Gurmukhi script by Javed Boota, has been published by Sulaikh Bookmakers, Lahore. His poems are so different in their composition, and tone and tenor that those hooked on the saccharine songs may frown upon them as non-poetry. Paradoxically, this very quality or absence of traditional poetic quality makes it contemporary poetry; fresh, unpretentious and reflective of conditions which surround us in urban spaces.

Surinder’s poems in fact seem to be conversations with things and people that dot metropolitan landscape. His conversing with them brings them alive, which otherwise seem impersonal and forbidding. He tells us in the blurb who inspired him to look at the things of everyday life. It was Dr Jagtaar who while traveling underground with him in a train looked at the coming station’s name on the screen and asked him whether he had written something on “Junction Boulevard? “No,” I replied. “You should,” he said. “The suggestion had magical impact on me. It stirred my imagination. So each scene, each thing and each walkway became stuff of poetry for me,” Surinder writes. New York City emerges as if it’s his beloved, intimate and yet not fully known. He sings of all iconic marks of the city which make it what it is; the most happening city in the world that has a magnetic pull. Experience of having physically seen is not required to appreciate what is expressed by the poet. He vividly evokes what is being described, narrated or delineated. But in order to enter his poetic world, one has to get the feel of new rhythm that he unobtrusively employs for seeing and experiencing things as they actually are and as they appear to him. He paints the whole city, which is an emblem of modernity, with all its cultural, social, architectural and technological manifestations. The segment “Rush hours” has five poems subtitled ‘People I met in the cab’. This set of poems depicts human predicament in a metropolis that simultaneously pulls and pushes people as it is as inviting as it is forbidding. The city loves all and yet no one. It’s a mélange of different cultures and values. Let’s see the eponymous poem of the book that shows what the poet sees in a museum in New York. “The Game Boy, preserved in a beautiful glass box of a museum; a bit singed from one edge, from another slightly melted / Smoked but it still shimmers in the museum light/ A shiny text beside “ The Game Boy’ tells how strong was this gadget! It happened among other things to be within the radius of an exploding bomb during the First Gulf War/ The gadget, slightly damaged, still works/ The piece preserved in the museum adds to its ambiance / But suddenly it strikes me; the boy who had this game must have been impacted by the bomb explosion/ What happened to that child? Why is the text silent about it?”Surinder’s book is a literary tour de force. Don’t miss it if you are interested in modern poetry and cosmopolitan life that has contemporary relevance.

Shagufta Gimmi‘s latest book ‘Jamiyaat Mein Urdu Tehqeeq” has been published by Qalam Foundation International, Lahore. Shagufta, based in London, is one of the daughters of well-established Punjabi writer, novelist, scholar and broadcaster Saleem Khan Gimi. She in her own right is a poet, writer, translator and broadcaster deeply engaged in creative pursuits. In the preface she says that it is “a first step in an endeavor to make accessible the research on Urdu literature done in Indian universities. This is the first volume. The second is in the pipeline and hopefully will reach the students within next six months.” The first volume is a weighty tome which implies a lot of sweat has gone into producing it. She narrates an anecdote that pained her but at the same time inspired her to undertake this project. She began working on it in 2021 when she was in Lahore making arrangements to get his father’s works published. It happened that she went into a library, saw a distraught girl and started a conversation with her. This is what the girl said: “I can’t find the topic for my MPhil thesis. Whoever I talk to puts on airs. I contacted a head of concerned department and people in different universities but nobody has time for me. If I fail to choose a thesis topic today, I shall give up my studies.” The book carries compilation of MPhil and PhD theses done in the Indian universities. The number is staggering; no less than 395 on diverse subjects. The book has been divided into 11 segments: Urdu language, linguistics and literary history, Tradition of classical literature, Religious literature, Tradition of Urdu poetry, Tradition of Urdu fiction, Tradition of non-fiction, Literary exploration and criticism, Translations, Comparative studies, Tradition of literary criticism, Humour in Urdu literature. This nearly one thousand page book can really help research scholars, especially students, as it offers a lot of material on various aspects of evolution of Urdu language and its literary tradition. Shagufta Gimmi deserves kudos for having burned the midnight oil. —

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