‘Kitab Trinjan’ a poem by Zubair Ahmed

(To comemorate the end of Kitab Trinjan)

Lungh geyaN shamaN yaar deyaN
Yaad surahi bhhar bhhar rakhh lae
Din beetay khali paun bharae
Adh-bhulay nooN poora ker lae
Bunh bunh rakhh lae sawgundh gallaN de
Ghul ghul jo dhooN hoi
PauRiyoN leh gaye
Andar dub lae aas naroi
MuTheiN purtdi hawaeiN nup lae
MuR muR kai oh chaitay kerna
Jis na hona jo na hoi
Buss aj raat ruj vuss lae
Unt fana jo hoi

Author Zubair Ahmed made Kitab Trinjan possible through his dedication and volunteer work. View more here

Poet Amarjit Chandan wins the Anad Kāv Sanman 2009

The meeting of the jury for the Anad Kav Sanman 2009 took place in Delhi on 25th October 2009. The jury members for the award, Shri M.K Raina, Professor Bhagwan Josh, Professor Renuka Singh, Dr. Madan Gopal Singh, Bhai Baldeep Singh, Shri Manglesh Dabral attended the meeting chaired by Professor Satyapal Gautam. The jury unanimously decided that this year’s Anad Kāv Sanman be conferred on Amarjit Chandan for his seminal contribution to Punjabi poetry and for bringing Punjabi poetry on the international scene.

This is the only literary award of its kind in South Asia that exclusively celebrates poetic excellence. It is also amongst the biggest awards in terms of money.

Punjabi poet Surjit Patar was the first recipient of this award last year.

To honour the memory of the Punjabi poetess Baljit Kaur Tulsi, The Anād Foundation started Anad Kāv Tarang Poetry festival and Anad Kāv Sanman in 2008. The award, offered to eminent poets, includes a cash prize of Rupees 2.5 lacs, a citation, a silver plate and a turban.

The leading English author and art critic John Berger opined that Amarjit Chandan’s poetry transports its listeners or readers into an arena of timelessness. What he does is to fold time; time in his poems becomes like an arras or a hinged screen. The listener or reader is encircled by a multiplicity of times. His poetic practice assumes that there are more space-time dimensions than the four we habitually recognize. Each of Chandan’s poems proceeds in its own way and has its own form. Yet in all of them there is an assembly of different space-time dimensions.

According to Christina Linardakis, a well known literary critic from Greece, the pictures of Chandan’s poetry are lacking of anything pretentious. On the contrary, they are surprisingly intimate. They portray our own moments, they capture our thoughts, they express our dreams, the contradictions of our mind. Never the less, Chandan’s descriptive power is sublimating, the detail of their reference is depriving the reader’s right of an adroit escape, it holds out his hand disarmingly, it guides him through unusual and familiar paths.

In his poetic speech, Chandan is weaving and unweaving his impressions, the perceptions, the memories of each one of us, weaving in this manner mainly the thread of our own thought and of our own life.

Amarjit Chandan has published five collections of poetry including Kavitavān, Jarhān, Beejak, Chhanna, Gurhti and Anjal, as well three books of prose in Punjabi notably Phailsufiān, Hun–Khin (A discussion with Sohan Qadri) and Nishāni.

English versions of Amarjit Chandan’s poems have appeared in England in a collection Being Here (1995, 1999, 2005) and magazines Poetry Review, Artrage, Bazaar, Brand, Critical Quarterly, Modern Poetry in Translation, Index on Censorship and Atlas (UK), Papirus and Akköy (Turkey), Erismus, Ombrela and Odos Panos (Greece) and Lettre Internationale (Romania) and Sonata for Four Hands, Collection of Poems (Arc Publications) prefaced by John Berger due in Oct 2009.

The ANĀD Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of culture, with particular focus on the preservation and perpetuation of the endangered intangible cultural heritage and traditions of South Asia. The ANĀD Foundation’s mission is to establish institutions as a means towards facilitating the recovery and enhancement of the intangible (sukham virsā) and tangible (sthūl virsā) heritage of South Asia as a priority.

Among the several aims of the Foundation include conferring ANĀD Sanmān, in the fields of poetry, music, dance, sports, science, technology, art, literature, theatre, cinema and handicrafts, etc. and for life time achievements in fields that the Trust is directly or indirectly concerned with.

The Anād Foundation is organizing the second edition of the festival Anād Kāv Tarang, an evening of poetry reading scheduled to be held on Sunday, November 22, 2009, at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi. A selection of Chandan’s 35 poems titled Paintee, designed by Gurvinder Singh and published by ANĀD, will also be released on the occasion. The function will conclude with musical renditions of Chandan’s poetry by Jasbir Jassi, Madan Gopal Singh, Rabbi Shergill, Sunanda Sharma and Bhai Baldeep Singh.

For further information, contact
The Anad Foundation
C-26, Nizamuddin East
New Delhi 110013
Telephone (Bhai Baldeep Singh) 9810002653
Email: anad@anad.in and/or bhaibaldeep@gmail.com

Press Release

Shiv Kumar Batalvi by Amarjit Chandan

This thought-provoking appreciation of Shiv Kumar’s poetry and his contribution to Punjabi literature is rendered by another poet of note: Amarjit Chandan; and, is presented here to commemorate Shiv Kumar’s birthday on the disputed date of July 23 (Wichaar.com).

The Poet of Gloom and Doom was a Good Laugh
By Amarjit Chandan

Shiv Kumar, Southall 1971. Amarjit Chandan Collection

Among the post-1947 generation of Punjabi poets, Shiv Kumar (SK) is perhaps the most popular poet. He has the same sort of following as painter Sobha Singh has for his kitsch paintings like Sohni Mahival and Gurdas Mann for his hollow songs. Sant Singh Sekhon, who once called SK as the Keats of Punjabi poetry, defined SK’s creative limitations in his introduction to his English rendering of SK’s Luna (1985):

‘When he [SK] first shot into prominence, he was at once noted for the peculiar charm of his diction and imagery and for his tone of decadent passion and existential despair. His favourite themes were the ache of desire, the melancholy of love and the fascination of death. …Young poets who make a startling initial effect by talking like disappointed old people are found generally to have walked into a dead alley. Shiv Kumar, with very modest education, seemed peculiarly to be such a poet.’
Luna, English version, MS, in my collection

Sekhon’s precise insight sums up the man and the poet. I am not the only person to be in total agreement with Sekhon.

It is a common view amongst Punjabi literary circles that SK’s poetry revolves around unfulfilled adolescent romance. It is all gloom and doom. Morbid imagery is recurrent in almost all his poems e.g. tears, pain, separation, poison, malady and death. He weaves words with pleasant lyrical sounds, which carry away the Punjabi reader without giving much thought to their actual meanings. A contemporary of SK said: Shiv’s poetry is like the stringed musical toy, which is music to your ears while the seller plays it. But in your hands it is just clay.

Though it is a cliché that poetry is impossible to translate, but most of the time the real worth of a poem is put to test when it is translated into another language; in this instance from Punjabi into English. This is another way of deconstructing the text. As an example I cite titles of two of SK’s poems: Vidhwa Rut (The Widowed Season) and HanjhuaN dee Chhabil (Tears dealt out gratuitously to slake thirst). The Punjabi word chhabil has no equivalent in English. It is a variation on the Arabic word sabil, especially a stall put up during Muharram to offer water or soft drinks to passers-by. In Punjab during the month of June, when the summer is at its peak, Punjabis of all denominations put up such stalls – chhabils. I quote a typical couplet from one of SK’s poems titled HanjhuaN de Gah (The Harvetsing of Tears):

jahi laRhi merey kaljey te birhoN dee dhamuRhi
merey jeriaN da arsh te pataal sujjia.
What a terrible wasp of separation it was, who stung my heart
The sky and the abyss of my heart got swollen.
Birha tu Sultan, 1975

The English version of the above lines is a faithful rendering of the original in Punjabi, though the wasp in Punjabi is not of neutral gender; it is she. I can testify that the couplet is as meaningless in the original as it is in the translation.

A random survey of Shiv Kumar’s fans would reveal that his popularity is based on just four or five poems. The top of the pop being mainu paiN birhoN de keeRhey ve (May I be infested with the maggots of separation). Him being handsome with wailing singing voice is another factor. He fits into the popular image of tragic hero, who dies young. He is the Devdas of Punjabi poetry. Unfortunately his later poems written during the rise of Maoist-Naxalite movement in East Punjab in the late 1960s especially Rukh nu fansi (A Tree Hanged) are little known. He tried in vain to be ‘modern’ and did write some prayogvadi experimental poems comparing bottles of beer lying on the table with ballistic missiles. Through Navtej Singh (d 1981), the editor of Preet Lari, SK flirted with the communists and read his poem Nehru de Varisan nu (To the Heirs of Nehru) in the Communist Party of India (CPI) congress held in Bombay in 1964. CPI’s and Preet Lari’s soft corner towards Nehru is well known. Even Navtej Singh found the poem politically naive and edited it before it was published in his magazine. I was close to Navtej Singh and worked under him for a while as an editor of Preet Lari. It all happened before my eyes, as it were.

Though SK borrowed some of his diction from Sufibani and titled one of his collection Birha tu Sultan after Sheikh Farid in the Adi Granth, he failed to take his work to the level of spirituality. Some recent academic studies claim that Shah Hussain was SK’s inspiration. It is worth noting here that Shah Hussain’s work was turned down by Guru Arjan Dev (1563–1606), when he had visited the fifth Guru in Amritsar to impress upon him to include his work in the Adi Granth. [As quoted in Gurshabad Ratnakar Mahankosh – Encyclopaedia of Sikh Literature, Bhai Kahn Singh, Reprint 1990; Ithas Sri Guru Granth Sahib (A History of Guru Granth Sahib), Giani Gurdit Singh, 1990]. If Shah Hussain was SK’s role model, then why he picked up his diction only and not his philosophy of Sufism? In my conversations with Sohan Qadri, a painter-poet and a close friend of SK has to say: ‘Shiv Kumar was a good laugh, but he was not deep.’ Hun-khin (The Present Moment in Time), Navyug 2000.
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SahebaN’s Name, Part 2

The name `SahebaN’ comes from ‘Sahib’ meaning respectable, an Urdu word coined to address the representatives of a previous colonial power. As a woman’s uncommon name, SahebaN captures our attention through an undersold Punjabi folk story called ‘Mirza SahebaN’, Mirza being SahebaN’s un!Rightful lover.

I must stress here that it is not a popular name for women in Pakistan, and it is strange that our SahebaN’s mother named her after SahebaN and not after Heer, for example. I can understand that Sassi Punnu being more from the neighboring restless province of Sind, and Yousuf Zulekha from the far-away Middle East, the province of the Punjab is left with Sehti Murad, Sohni Mahinwal, Mirza SahebaN and Heer Ranjha. The pattern of this list is shattered by Dulla Bhatti, the brave freedom fighter who fought the Mughals, and appears in some history books as the local Robin Hood without of course, the female object Maid Marian. It is clear that neither Dulla nor Bhatti is a woman’s name, and despite being a Muslim Dulla sided with Hindus and Sikhs against the aforementioned Mughals. In the interest of overall sanity, we will have to recall him so don’t forget the name Dulla, it’s okay if you can’t remember Bhatti because that will already be there for you.

About Mirza and Yousuf though: I can not help notice that other than Mirza and Yousuf, who like Romeo are guys, all the other four titles of this folk lore of love begin with the names of their Juliets. Give me a moment; Sassi, Zulekha, Sehti, Sohni, SahebaN, and Heer are Juliets who died for and with the following Romeos, from left to !Right, Punnu, Yousuf, Murad, Mahinwal, Mirza, and Ranjha. Mirza and Romeo were brave heirs to regional thrones, Yousuf was a prophet, Murad was a Baloch, and the rest were just men. Among the four women, Heer of Sial is the most admired of all. The rest can file cases of numerous Human !Rights violations against proponents of Heer for being sidelined, over-looked and pushed-aside. Even International Conglomerate of History (ICH) provided space to Heer and her !Rightful lover Ranjha in the Halls of Fame across the Globe as soon as they died of familial deceptions and poisons.

Mirza and SahebaN also gave their lives for love but do you see them in the ICH halls of fame? Their songs were sung too but what do you get when you type ‘mirza saheban’ in the search box at Sazaa? Nothing! Search finishes without any result! I suggest that it’s not just because of the systemic racism inherent in the structure of WWW, type `heer ranjha’ in the same slot: Results! Download five different Heers sung by five different artists. Alam Lohar, Noor Jehan, Reshman even Mehdi Hassan if you prefer Urdu over Punjabi though I will have to wonder why.

The reasons for this negligence are not hidden from us; and, we know why most Punjabis do not consider SahebaN the !Right role model for Punjabi women. Indeed, it is due to the deep shadow cast by SahebaN on some important aspects of Muslim culture, for example and in particular, on a Muslim woman’s loyalty factor.

Being a South Asian Pakistani Canadian Muslim Woman of Color, I can tell you that Loyalty-to-the-Man factor is almost as, and sometimes more, important than the Virginity-of-the-Woman factor (Read The Unnecessary). As a result, we are not allowed to forget that Mirza and SahebaN indulged in pre-marital sex though I can’t see what the problem was because in Peenutstan at the time, pre-marital sex was almost the same as the post-marital, extra-marital and non-marital sex. Still, a proverb was added to the rich library of Punjabi, the dual-scripted regional language of the divided province of the Punjab: ‘Unee aashiq guzre te Mirze veeh pujai: 19 lovers passed before Mirza brought on the 20′.

Bringing-on-the-20 means doing something outrageous and unacceptable to a social set. Example: 19 centuries passed before Bobett brought on the 20. Wait, this may have made some readers uncomfortable including myself, so allow me to change the line of my argument. Mirza brought-on-the-20 by indulging in whatever marital sex, but did he do it alone? Was SahebaN not a party to the sinful crime? But here you will notice that contrary to the widespread cultural norm of placing the responsibility of all negative occurrences on the most visible woman in the vicinity, this proverb places the responsibility of that whatever marital sex on Mirza alone.

I am still reluctant to define the nature of sex that may have taken place between Mirza and SahebaN because what marital sex they could have had in the short span of time in the village Mosque where they fell in love; at the house of Masi before they eloped; and, on the run before they died. I am also reluctant to call the activity by its Muslim name Zina, meaning adultery. Because if I do, we will have to bring in the Sharia Laws as practiced at times in Peenutstan, Honoristan and Hairan; and that, to quote hopeful writers who have said it before me, ‘is a subject for another book’.

Back to the now way above proverb, by placing the total responsibility of that-marital sex on Mirza alone, the Social Set is telling us what? Not that SahebaN was absolved! Her role was overlooked because it was undesirable for that Social Set to award her recognition at the proverbial level of their mother language.

The reason: SahebaN lost her virginity to Mirza (or did she?) without the required intervention of any priest; eloped with Mirza when all her kin were at her house to marry her off to WhatWasHisHame; and then when her brothers caught up, she threw Mirza’s quiver up the looming tree (what was she smoking?). Both got killed. SahebaN’s death occurs somewhere in the footnotes while Mirza’s death at least is mourned by Peelu, author of the first version of `Mirza SahebaN’.

Punjabi word `Peelu’ means ‘one wild berry or more’ constituting another uncommon name. This one gives us no clue about the gender, occupation or quantity of its bearer but everyone knows that Peelu was a guy, why? For one, Peelu was astounded by Mirza’s mare Bakki, and to him, SahebaN was just a lust-inducing, strong and stupid woman who like so many others was bound to, and did, bring an honorable and brave man to his defeat and death. If Peelu had the time to wonder why one of his characters was acting the way she was, he would have found them. May be not, it’s hard for most mortal men to withdraw attention from fast means of transportation.

Poet Peelu, that single sour berry or more, is being discussed here at the expense of Hafiz Burkhuddar the other Mirza SahebaN author because it was Peelu who wrote the base line that was later used with many other active ideological solutions to fertilize the crop of various prejudicisms sowed earlier in the land. This is how Peelu advises Mirza, the young Punjabi gun, as to the nature of women:
`Bhit ranna.n di dosti, khuri jinhan de mutt: Cursed is the friendship of women, whose wisdom has been melted away.’

The line forged another over-used proverb in the same rich library of the same dual-scripted language of that same divided province.

Yet again, it was Peelu who perpetuated outrageous myths about the women and people of Sial, a location in the Punjab that has given us not only our two SahebaNs and a Sehti but also our one revered Heer. But Peelu, in the language of Mirza’s mother who of course is a Kharl, says:
`burre Sialaan de moamale, burrie Sialaan dee raah
`buriyaan Sialaan diyan aurtaan, laindiyan jadoo pa
‘kudh kaleja khandian, mere jhate tel na pa’
If you haven’t already guessed it then here it is:
`Bad are affairs of the Sialis, bad the path leading to them; Bad are women of Sial, casting magic spells; They take out the lungs (of lovers) and eat, don’t fool me by putting oil in my disheveled head.’

From this poetic depiction, it appears that the opposites were assumed to be true about the Kharls by the Kharl Matriarch.

SahebaN may have had another story to tell and it may have been different from what we got from poet Peelu, and the Matriarch above.

Imagine a scene outside a non-descript village in the vast countryside of the Punjab. SahebaN and Mirza, after striking an unforgivable blow to the ‘honor’ of the peoples of both Sial and Chadhar, have eloped on Mirza’s much-praised-by-now mare Bakki. On the way, in self defence, Mirza has fearlessly killed one of SahebaN’s brothers in front of her. Now, after covering some distance, they stop to rest under the shade of Jund trees. Mirza reclines, SahebaN implores him to take her to Dhanabad, his Kharl capital. Mirza responds by telling SahebaN how he is going to kill the rest of her brothers and kin, and how after killing them, his mare Bakki will take them to Dhanabad and safety. Despite SahebaN’s repeated protests, Mirza decides to fall asleep in an insecure Siali territory not to mention the miserable shade provided by the skimpy Jund trees. SahebaN hears her brothers approach and without explaining anything to poet Peelu, throws Mirza’s quiver up on the Jund, and out of his immediate reach.

It did not cross Mirza’s mind, or Peelu’s, that SahebaN may have loved her brothers and other members of her family, and she may have hoped that if Mirza did not kill another of them first, reconciliation was still possible; Or that if Mirza was unarmed, the two had a chance of being taken alive.

Instead, she was pushed up and down the loyalty cliff, and from that point, Mirza was alone on one side while the other was crowded by SahebaN’s brotherhood. The brotherhood as usual stood supported by fatherhood, motherhood, aunthood, unclehood, neighborhood, and, at least a portion of the sisterhood. I think, SahebaN was a dead woman right there, and so was Mirza.

In this case of split loyalties, SahebaN confronted similar choices as the ones later Sophie had to face: whose life would you spare? Sons or Daughters? Lovers or Brothers? Result? One died fast, the other had to live with it. As well, even in death SahebaN gained the unparalleled notoriety of being a woman who wavered in her loyalty both to her family and her lover. I will not question Mirza’s loyalty because I am trained to not question the loyalty of Muslim men.

Another overlooked aspect of this story is that through her actions SahebaN affirms non-violence when she asks Mirza to leave a violent situation; and, again as she throws away the quiver. It is unfortunate that this important aspect of this folk story has been muddled with feudal-macho Adam-Eve blame-guilt loyal-disloyal streaks.

I notice that somewhere during this discussion, our SahebaNs have gotten confused. It is hard now to differentiate between SahebaN Folk and SahebaN Relentless or Peenutstan and Pakistan. For the rest of this Note, we will use SahebaN F (Folk Hero) and SahebaN R (Relentless Warrior) to keep us on the !Right track.

Not only that they both have the exact same name but their country of origin, place of birth and gender also is the same. In addition, they use the same script for their mother language; share allegations of what-marital sex; and, sport lovers who were passionate about their respective means of transportation.

Our conceptual boundaries may continue to obliterate as we read about the Lord of the Trap, SahebaN R’s !Rightful lover. As you now know, Mirza had no !Rights; he also did not have a flat screen 48’ color Plasma TV or a Toyota Celica; but most of all, due to destiny, he did not get the chance to bring SahebaN F to the gaping teeth of the Formidable Institution (Read The Lord of the Trap).

Time to recall Dulla: SahebaN R being a warrior can be compared to Dulla though it would be unnatural for a Muslim woman to do so, so let me put both aside for a moment and go to female heathen Zena.

In the Muslim world, warrior-princess Zena will never cut it and may actually cast a harmful shadow on both if compared with either of the SahebaNs. But if Xena was to modify her image she may see large profits emanating from that mysterious, and now somewhat dangerous, world. First of all, a change of name will help (Binte Laden? Noori?). In addition, her top should have no highlights on boobs, the shape of the bottom should be similar to baggy pants, and she should learn to reveal everything through a plain uninviting robe.

I would advise the scriptwriters of Zena to immerse themselves in the 130 novels written in Urdu by author Nasim Hijazi to improve the Warrior Princess’s mannerism by bringing her close to a respectable, purdah-clad, horse-riding, man-awaiting, brave Muslim woman. This also may help her to eventually learn how to get the men to do the fighting while she enjoys her time waiting for them in their matrimonial home.

Another worrisome aspect of Zena is the undercurrent sexual dynamics of her relations with the white woman. Replacing the woman with a bearded white man will guarantee Zena’s success as this is what we do to all our gay Sufi poets: replace, make the gayness invisible, shwank, its not there. An example: you have heard about the love lore of the Punjab from me, and you have seen these four names: Heer Ranjha, Mirza SahebaN, Sassi Punnu, Sehti Murad. I have, like all my predecessors, made invisible the names of all the glorious lovers who failed to fall in love with women, and that include our great classic poets Madhulal Hussain and Bulleh Shah.

You may not believe it but I must insist that I am not responsible for initiating this trend where we can collectively punish men who, rejecting all the man-positive women of the world, go on to love other men. I cite the case of Shah Hussain because it is the story of love of an insightful artist who knew what we were going to do to him so he tried to preserve his gay and secular identity by adding his lover’s name to his own as he proclaimed himself ‘Madhulal Hussain’.

On the other hand, I, like most Punjabis have put his true and complete identity in the locked drawer of my desk, and just make-do with parts of him when reading or singing his poetry.

Anyway, apart from the popularity factor, comparing Zena to SahebaN R is like comparing Bin Laden with Green Party leader Ralph Nader. Too much! None of these comparisons will improve SahebaN R’s image, they may actually make it worse. Don’t take me wrong, its not just Zena. Comparing SahebaN Relentless with Zena, Phoolan Devi, Mohammed Bin Qasim or Dulla Bhatti is not easy. The difficulty with SahebaN is this: who wants a hero who uses no weapons, drives nothing for transportation, and has no license to allow hero worship?

Aside from these credibility holes, working as a weaponless warrior I doubt if SahebaN made any money at all but it did prove one thing that SahebaN, much like Mahatma Gandhi, did not have a mortgage to pay. So, let me just say that the stories of both Folk and Relentless SahebaNs have remained undersold because of discrimination against them of high intellectuals, partial historians and global institutions. This project endeavors to correct some erroneous assumptions about at least SahebaN R if not SahebaN F.

From The Adventures of SahebaN: Biography of a Relentless Warrior by Fauzia Rafiq

Feica Lost and Found?

No, no, this NOT Feica!

There are numerous rumors about our Karachi-based Punjabi Cartoonist Feica, who also happens to work at radio Musst FM103, as having been lost reminding us of our recently lost and found personality, Poet Afzal Saahir. But just because Feica works at the same radio station does not mean that he is lost as well or that after getting lost he will be as findable as Saahir.

Such rumors have underlying implications that if Feica’s country is about to be lost or is a ‘lost cause’ than Feica is too. But this view remains unsupported by the facts on the ground. We all well know that half of Feica’s country already became lost in 1971 illuminating all the ‘lost-caused’ aspects of it where Feica at 15 was gearing up in Multan to fall in love for the first time.

We are not sure if he did but we do know that two years later he had appeared afflicted with cartoonism at the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, and has not been reported lost since.

Yet in a place where people are continuously being made to disappear, it is hard to assume that someone wouldn’t but i assure you that Feica at least is not lost. He is drawing cartoons for Daily Dawn and living in Karachi, a city still considered to be one of the many ‘burning’ parts of Pakistan. Even so if you don’t want to take my word for it, view the cartoon at the beginning of this post, and the one at the end. Though none provide a definite address for him in Karachi, both indicate the obvious un-lostness of Feica because of his (authenticated*) signage dated April 29, 2009.

Pakistan: The Day of Birth to April 29, 2009

In the above ongoing scenario, Feica has pointedly placed himself beside an un-armed Single Mother and her two unarmed kids; but more dangerously, under the direct range of an agitated bird. As you can see, all this is taking place way below the popular international cinema scope featuring the Global Puppeteer with a Local Mover, and a Local/Global Shaker. All fully armed.

Indeed, it is a clean depiction of a messy situation that involves blood and explosives as the three armed parties fight each other and kill others to gain control over mineral-rich areas of Pakistan such as the North-Western Frontier Province or FATA/PATA, and Baluchistan. And if the urban educated families of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are feeling attacked, it is because these three cities hold the key to all the treasures of the country.

In this situation, it may be best to look for our lost and about-to-be-lost treasured resources instead of putting our energies in finding a totally un-lost Feica.

If you agree with this suggestion, get back to us asap as we are ready to launch the search to find all the desired lost ideas, countries, languages, national treasures, and (at least some) people.

* Feica’s signature authenticated by Poet Mudasar (the other) Punnu .

P.S.

As i was finishing this post, the news of another lost person being found had surfaced in digital format. Before we go on to reveal his identity, it is important to warn you that this person may have us stretch our carefully drawn boundaries. He falls in the category of a ‘person’ and yet can also be depicted as a ‘national treasure’ for the nation of Punjab because of the mammoth amount of work accomplished by him to gain-back a fast-loosing language, independent thinking and grounded literature. View his most recent publication ‘Comrade Lal Khan‘ (co-edited by Saif Khalid).

Renowned Punjabi Poet, Writer and Archivist Ahmad Salim who was thought to be lost since Nov-Dec 2008, has been spotted today in London UK by Author/Photographer Amarjit Chandan.

Jeevay Ahmad Salim!!!

Ahmad Salim, London May 4, 2009

Photo by Amarjit Chandan

Uddari is One

April 11, Uddari Weblog is one year new!

134 Posts

300 Comments

295 approved

First post: April 11, 2008

Photo by Partap Singh Ahdan, Lahore 1943

Title: Aahu Chashm Ragini
Photo by: Partap Singh Ahdan
Sourced by: Amarjit Chandan

Post intended to be the first:
Royalty Rights in Punjabi Publishing

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First Comment

‘It is so unfortunate that in the new provincial assembly there is no party/individual/group to voice the right of children to study in the mother tongue. maybe we need to start a signature campaign to promote the cause.’
Posted by: Chitrkar from lahorechitrkar@gmail.com
On: Home, Uddari Mudhla Warqa
Submitted: 2008/04/07 at 9:19pm

First Uddari Page:

Great Women of Punjabi Origin

Punjab deyaN ManniaN PerwanniaN ZnaniaN

Added on: 2008/04/20

Kewal Kaur, a Naxalite activist

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First post

Kewal Kaur: A Great Punjabi Woman

Photo and information by

Amarjit Chandan

First Uddari blog site: Uddari Art Exhibition

First work of art: Shahid Mirza’s ‘Kala MaiNdha Bhaes’

In: Modern Art by Punjabis
On: May 23 2008

Spielberg ripped off Satyajit Ray’s ‘Alien’…and rock and roll…‏

By NewsClots

“Famed Indian filmaker Satyajit Ray was ripped off by Steven Spielberg. Ray wrote a script called ‘The Alien’ and it was set to be his first Hollywood film, but was cancelled at the last minute before preproduction. It was going to star Marlon Brando in 1969. Ray and Spielberg had the same agent (although about 15 years apart) and the agent gave the idea to Spielberg’s attention (from a book on Ray): …the plagiarizing of Ray’s 1967 script “The Alien” by Columbia Pictures and its re-emergence as Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (Ray wrote in detail about this: ‘ET would not have been possible without my script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies.’) “

“Whole Lotta Love” – Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” was appropriated, without credit, from famed African composer Willie Dixon’s “You Need Love.” Although the main guitar riff was composed
by Jimmy Page himself, Robert Plant based the lyrics on Dixon’s song. Dixon and his music publisher received a million dollars in credit and royalties, after a 1985 lawsuit was settled out of court.

The Beach Boys’ hit “Surfin’ USA”
The Beach Boys’ hit “Surfin’ USA”, originally credited as composed by Brian Wilson, is in large part a direct copy of African performer Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”. Chuck Berry has since been given full writer credit (both lyrics and music) on the track. When Chuck Berry first protested the situation he was jailed for five years on trumped up charges, due to the rising sun of the Beach Boys (with sponsorships from Honda, etc) … John Lennon was succinct: “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”

Stones, Beatles, Paul Simon
Stones, Beatles, Paul Simon….how they ripped off African and Indian music…coming next…(and why Sri Lankans have to learn jazz from the British Council…)

‘No Heer please, we’re Sikhs!’

Singing Heer not allowed in Khalsa College!

Idu Sharif at Khalsa College, Muktasar
Photo by Subhash Parihar

Singer Idu Sharif of Malerkotla gave a performance at Khalsa College Muktsar in India yesterday evening where someone from the audience requested him to sing Heer but the organisers said that singing Heer can not be allowed in Khalsa College.

Both audience and singers were ‘disappointed’, shares Photographer Subhash Parihar (who was present at the occasion) with Author Amarjit Chandan in an email message.

Heer Ranjha is the ever-living folk story of the Punjab presented over ages by various writers including Damodar Daas, Mukbaz and Ahmed Gujjar but when a Punjabi just says ‘heer’ it means Heer by Poet Waris Shah.  Written in 1766, Heer Waris Shah is perhaps one of the most endearing and enduring literary feats of Punjabi language and culture. It also has its own ‘gaiki’, a specific mode of singing, and Punjabi folk singers ‘test’ each other on singing Heer.

Not just that. The legendary devotion of Heer and Ranjha to each other that cut across class and tradition, is one of the strongest symbols of spiritual transcendental love in the sufi poetry of the Punjab. The Sufi poets, especially Malamti Sufis such as Madhulal Hussain and Bulhe Shah who made extensive use of the story and characters of Heer and Ranjha, were also avid critics of religion/s.

Heer herself challenged the laws of tradition in the local court, and ‘mullahs’ (Muslim priests) were held in contempt by both Heer and Ranjha.

As well, its a love story, the religious frameworks are too harsh for it to unfold.

This incident reminds us again to be mindful of allowing any religion be it Sikh, Muslim, Hindu or Christian to take charge of language development efforts. If Khalsa College is intolerant of Heer-singing in a music concert, we will find even worse examples of what may or may not be allowed in a Muslim college. To begin with, singing itself is not allowed in Islam unless the songs are ‘hamd’, ‘naat’ or ‘qawwali’ the three accepted forms of singing to praise Allah and Prophet Muhammad.

Weary of ‘Sikh’ chairs in North America, i am dreading the ‘Sufi’ chairs that are being formed in the universities in Pakistani Punjab because Sufism’s stronger and influential streaks do not adhere to Malamti sufis but sufis of demagogic religious beliefs.

Our religions, whenever possible, will ‘develop’ a stern Punjabi language bound by a culture of righteous suffocation to promote a form of Punjabi literature and art that may not be much to look forward to.

Fauzia Rafiq
Subhash Parihar
Amarjit Chandan

(Title inspired by stage play ‘No sex please, we’re British‘)

Bhagat Singh Shaheed: ‘Nee mayaiN mera rung dae basanti chola’

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On

Bhagat Singh Shaheed Day

March 23/09

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Two Punjabi poems

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Bhagat Singh de NaaN 1
By Mudasar Punnu

Hussaino!

Rat. laal nee

Paalan rut mhaal nee

Jind haaloN behaal nee

Kufr dae ghhaeray

Haq dae gaeRay

Keh parwah jo

Sangi saaDae naal nee

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Bhagat Singh de NaaN 2
By Mudasar Punnu

KidhroN aye

Kidhar langh gaye

Yaar peyareyaN sangdi

Rut karni

Rab honi toN

Khair ishq de mangdi

Soohae saaway naal gulabi

Vich bzareiN bhatti chaaRhay

Basanti malmal cha’ naal

Ghar ja ke rangdi
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Mudasar Punnu

Remembering Ustad Hafeez Khan Talwandi

We are saddened to announce that our classical vocal class teacher and beloved guru Ustad Hafeez Khan Talwandi passed away on Wednesday, 18 march 2009.

Ustad sahib belonged to the most ancient and respected Punjab classical vocal gharana, Talwandi. He has left behind hundreds of classical vocal students including his son Ali Hafeez Khan and his most senior student Ayesha Ali who performs regularly. Ustad Hafeez Khan performed extensively in Pakistan and all over the world.

A reference in his memory will be held at Lahore Chitrkar on Sunday, 22 March 2009.

Type: Condolence Reference
Time: 11:00 AM
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009

RSVP: Shahid Mirza
Website: www.lahorechitrkar.com