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POETRY
OF AN EXPATRIATE SIKH
Daily Dawn, Pakistan, 18th January,2002 Aanaran wala vehrra (in Persian
script, 84 selected poems) by Amarjit
Chandan; pp144; Rs 99 {pb}; Kitab Trinjan, 22, Mian
Chambers, 3
Temple Road, Lahore, 2002.
Amarjit Chandan is
among those Sikh writers whose main theme is the
agony of the emigrants, "besides, of course,
starting their experience of life in the country of their
domicile."
This is the evaluation
of two senior Sikh writers, Kartar Singh
Duggal and the late Sant Singh Sekhon which they have
expressed in their book, a history of Punjabi literature,
according to which Chandan first
edited a collection of short stories written by Punjabi
writers settled in Britain, Do Kinarey which
"provides a peep into the working of the mind of
Punjabis living abroad. The title suggests that these
stories relate to the people torn between two loves, love
of the land of their birth and love for making more and
more money in a foreign country--at times they appear to
lead sterile lives, living in the land to which they can
not belong, longing to go back where can not
return".
This is also the main
theme of Pakistan Punjabi writers settled in
foreign land and Chandan is in one respect senior to many
of them because his father was the first to go to Africa
in 1929 and this collection has one poem about his
departure from Bombay by the sea.
The poem, Jahaz da
ghughoo (The Ship Horn) refers to Khwaja Khizer
the prophet of the seafaring Muslims.
darey yatree, dil di dharkan khunji,
vich samander phal, narial suttan laggey
sukhan sukhdey, khizar khwaja razi hoya.
(When the boat started sailing, the passengers were
nervous missing
their heartbeats. They threw flowers, coconuts in the sea
for the sake of god of water Khizar Khwaja.)
His first taste of
leaving one's land which he must have realized in
his house in Nakodar where he went to Arya school and
where he was more
interested in hearing the last bell which marked the end
of the
Sanskrit period. The title of the poem is Chhutti di
ghanti.
In his early poetry,
Chandan has many references and symbols from
that part of the Punjab but does not miss the references
related to his religious beliefs.
In the collection under review, we find a difference as
he sets out
on his emotional journey of west Punjab, where lies the
capital of the only nation-state of the Sikhs which was
conquered by the people in whose country he is now making
a living and writing poetry. Here he
celebrates the new millennium on the bank of the Thames:
pug banh kay nawan yug chahrria putt Sikh de,
kandhey wehni dey babey da utara si sukh rehni de,
(A Sikh father's son celebrated the dawn of a new
milliennium wearing
his turban. As if Nanak's face appeared on the sky by the
Thames river
flowing peacefully.)
Nanak appears in his
poetry again and again. when during his visit to
West Punjab in Pakistan, he went to Nankana Sahib, Nanak
s' birthplace, he says:
Nankana dhura dharti da,
Nankana suraj brahmand da
Kukh shabd bhi Nankana hai
Nankana manzil eh kul rahwan di,
Nankana ghar da rah hai.
(Nankana is the center of the world, its is the womb of
the word./All roads lead to Nankana and Nankana is the
path of one s' home}
During Chandan s' stay in west Punjab, he visited many
places on
which he has written poems. For Lahore, he has four poems
including on one Pir Turat Murad , a dervishe buried in
the Bagh-i-jinnah. He sings in praise of Wazirabad, the
chenab, the bela and Akram Warriach whose family lives on
the river bank. Everywhere he is attracted by the
rebellious spirit of the Punjab.
About the Lahore's
revolutionary characters, he writes:
Rattan Singh, Santokh, Sutantar
Dada Mir, Qurban Elahi,
Ram Krishan janda Aamu darya andar
na kaghaz na akkhar
Kon bhateeja tahng millian di
lay kay phansi charrhia.
This is story of Bhagat
Singh and early Punjabi Muslim, Hindu and
Sikh patriots who were considered terrorists by the All
India National
Congress. Incidentally, the main theme in the history of
the Sikhs is
a cntinuous struggle for self-preservation which
sometimes took a
violent turn.
It happened so in towards the end of the Mughal era, when
the
official machinery was hardening the process of its
decline. The Sikhs have always been considered productive
manpower. and that is why Dana labhdi heh,pani mangdi he
khair manggadi heh, jarrh labhdi heh
....Aeh mairi awaz heh, mairey peo dey peo di awaz.
(This is my forefather's voice seeking bread, water and
wishing good
for all. It seeks its root.)
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