Articles by Nirupama Dutt

Articles by: Nirupama Dutt

Munir Niazi: complete poet of our times

A baby boy born in the obscure village of Khanpur near Hoshiarpur on April 9, 1928, had to migrate to the promised land of Pakistan when he was still 19 and his family settled down in Sahiwal. The trauma of displacement, in the mass migration from and the struggle to start afresh imprinted itself .....

Pain, poetry and passion

THERE is something very endearing about Afzal Saahir, Lahore’s young poet who is in town with his fine repertoire of Punjabi poetry. Endearing and vulnerable, one is at once protective about him and a little afraid, for poets such as him have had the going tough in an....

One flew over the PAINTER`S NEST

The first image one has of painter, writer and actor Naresh Pandit dates back to the late 1970s. It is a street play by Gurcharan Chaani, probablyDisturbed Area and among the young actors are students of the College of Art, Chandigarh, is one who chants....

It is hard to partition tradition

WHAT made Lahore the legendary city was its multi-cultural and multi-religious heritage having been the kingdom of Hindus, Mughals and the Sikhs as well as a prized city of the British after the annexation of Punjab. With the Partition of the country, Lahore ......

Nirupama Dutt: Lal Singh Dil

How is one to remember Lal Singh Dil? The literary status of Dil in the world of Punjabi literature was never disputed and he is often described as the poets’ poet. Punjabi poet Surjit Patar says: “He will be counted as one of the top Punjabi poets of the twentieth century.” However .........

Brooding by the Border

(This story was written in the Summer of 1997)The border outpost of Wagah today is a honeymoon destination, its greatest attraction being the daily beating retreat ceremonials watched by thousands from both sides of the divide. Swept by the bonhomie. Nirupama Dutt wonders whether,

Bano Bazaar Chaat in Lahore's Anarkali

The subject in the message of my mailbox was “Bano Bazaar Chaat”. The sender was some Tauheed. What could it be? I could not recall the name Tauheed. Was it some advertisement or some new “chat” group misspelled “chaat”. Curiously, I opened it. It was a fond little note from a.....

The Girl from Rawalpindi

The road is certainly leading to Lahore. What with the premiers of the two countries only too eager to hitch the inaugural joy ride to and fro. The past fifty and one years, it has been the lure of Lahore which has haunted the nostalgia of the migrants of the partitioned Punjab. Being the cultural......

Romance of the Chenab

THE Chenab is the largest of the five rivers of Punjab and also the most rapid. It is picture pretty with low but open banks that are still well wooded. Perhaps its scenic beauty contributed to the three love-legends of the land that blossomed around it — Mirza-Sahiban, Heer-Ranjha.....

Title

There is some of Najm Hosain Syed's work, where you can tell the earlier writings from his later ones, at least in his poetry, but not in his prose, criticism or drama. This book is a collection of newspaper articles written by him in his mid 20s....