Amrita Pritam: 101st Birth Anniversary
“Don’t say that.”
“He gets annoyed.”
“Then let it happen. I know there is no God. “
“If it were, don’t listen to me.”
“What did he say to her?”
“Don’t kill my mother .”
At the age of only eleven, the little girl who was confronted by her father against the existence of God is the one whose arrival was also a part of her dislike for her father. The birth of the daughter was not in the hands of the father, so the nickname from which the father wrote the poem was translated into Punjabi by the male reader’s name and the girl was named Amrita (Amrita). Which in the future did not know the boundaries of space and time, within which the tree of letters and grafts was irrigated and to this day the tree has remained green, the sweet fruits of which we are eating?
While Amrita, who has given memorable novels like Pinjar and sharp poetry and story collections, is now more famous than the name Amrita Pritam, one thing becomes clear that Pritam was the name of Amrita’s husband! Amrita, who has been awarded high honors like Gyanpith and Padma Vibhushan, is popular in India as well as across the border.
Amrita Pritam’s autobiography ‘ Revenue Stamp’ is one of the best autobiographies in the Indian language. The question naturally arises as to the relationship between the word revenue and the author. The answer comes from the conversation between him and Great Khushwant Singh.
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Amrita- I have written poems, novels, stories, now if I write something about me, just for a change
Khushwant Singh- “What should be in your life? One or two occasions. That is enough on the back of the revenue stamp.
Khushwant Singh’s words struck him and he stamped his small revenue stamp on his life’s accounting papers.
About his poems, She says,
“It is a symbol of pain and I have accepted that fact.
“It was a pain,
I smoked like a cigarette
There are only a few poems-
I snort like ashes from a cigarette. “
In his autobiography, he has vividly portrayed the event that took place in the 19th year of his life. For the events of the 19th year, Amrita says,
“The sixteenth year lasts forever as long as there is beautiful imagination in the eyes.”
The partition of India will probably be the most traumatic event of her life for Amrita. Amrita calls this incident the biggest killer scandal. Her poem, addressed to Waris Shah, seems just as painful today.
“ओ दर्द के दोस्त! अपने पंजाब को देखो,
जंगल लाशों से ढका है, और चेनाब खून से लथपथ है।
If the one who is constantly innovating is the closest to God, then the one who creates something new is the creator, even if he does not create anything. Amrita’s creation was one of them and its main origin was human beings — their breaking voices, searching for each other, rattling like a sword, and dripping like a wound. In addition to poetry, the words of stories and novels seem to bleed.
The culmination of Amrita’s creation comes when she writes something like this,
“समझदार लोग रेत को पानी समझने की गलती नहीं करते हैं,
लेकिन मैं कहता हूं कि जो लोग रेत को पानी समझने की गलती नहीं करते हैं,
उनकी प्यास में जरूर कोई कमी होगी”
In a question, She was asked, “Wouldn’t it be a social disaster if your heroines left their homes in search of the truth?”
Amrita then replied, “If a few houses are broken down because of false values, more houses should be sacrificed on that altar.”
Amrita has always had a question for her own pain that if she has to die then why she has to suffer and she writes a poem that,
Amrita and Imroz
Amrita, who was one step ahead of the writers, also lived a close relationship in her personal life. The relationship between Amrita and Imroz has always been a topic of discussion among readers and scholars. If that relationship has been largely unacceptable, Imroz says,
“प्यार करने वाले जोड़े जो अपने प्यार पर भरोसा नहीं करते हैं उन्हें स्वीकृति की आवश्यकता होती है।”
So in a poem, Amrita says,
“राही! आपने मुझे शाम को क्यों देखा?
जीवन की यात्रा समाप्त होने वाली है।
अगर मिलना होता
ज़िन्दगी की दोपहर में,
दोपहर की गर्मी देखते हैं। “
Ghazals are divided into two parts in literature, Ishq-e-Mijazi, and Ishq-e-Haqiki. The relationship between Amrita and Imroz was also somewhat Ishq-e-Haqiki. Meaning the presentation of love by understanding God as the Beloved. This relationship had also reached such a level. Amrita and Imroz’s relationship was somewhere between love and friendship, the biggest witnesses of which have been the pen and the canvas.
Writes in a poem about his relationship that,
“सुबह और शाम फिर से हम कागज के फटे टुकड़े की तरह मिले, मैंने उसका हाथ अपने हाथ में लिया
उसने मुझे अपनी बाँहों में पकड़ लिया। “
Both of them were fans of the art of beautifying life so both of them respected each other’s art which is the best example of their love-e-hakiki. Although both were connected, their time was independent. Witnessing the open door in a separate room, the two continued to create by experiencing each other.
Although the two were mutually exclusive, they could think almost on the same level, once Imroz was asked about the male-female relationship, he said.
“आदमी ने केवल एक महिला के साथ सोना सीखा है, न कि जागने के लिए।”
The one who was ahead of his time was born exactly a hundred years ago and last year the Google guru also featured Amritaji in a doodle according to his own custom.
मैं चुप शान्त और अडोल खड़ी थी
सिर्फ पास बहते समुन्द्र में तूफान था……फिर समुन्द्र को खुदा जाने
उसने तूफान की एक पोटली सी बांधी
Originally published at https://www.thelitthings.com on August 31, 2020.
