Shiv Kumar Batalvi --- (Presentation - Desh Ratna)

Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Shiv Kumar: (born July 23, 1936 in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh tehsil), Punjab [now Pakistan], died May 7, 1973 in Kir Mangyal (Pathankot), Punjab in India) was a Punjabi poet.
Early Childhood:
Shiv's father was a Patwari (a collector) by the name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partitionof India, his family moved to Batala from Pakistan. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and rugged, thorny plants on the Punjabi landscape. Shiv was exposed to the 'ramlila' (a dramatised version of Hindu mythological epic) at an early age, and it is to be expected that he received what was later to become his instinctive understanding of drama from these early performances. Shiv belonged to a middle-class family. By all accounts, Shiv had a happy and carefree childhood. He was known for his peculiar habit of wandering around in the village and its surroundings alone. Many times his father would have to search for him, finding him lying down under the trees at the banks of Bassantar nala, local irrigation canal or near a mandir (temple) on the south side of the village. At other times he would be found watching with fascination the tricks of snake charmers or absorbed in listening to the singings of raas-daharis (a folk verse-play based on religious songs). Even today, the old folks in the village remember that ‘patwari's son’ was known as a sheedai (obsessed) and a malang (wanderer).
Education:
Shiv passed his matriculate exams in 1953, from Punjab University. He went on to enrol in the F.Sc. programme at Baring Union Christian College in Batala. Before completing his degree he moved to S.N. College, Qadian into their Arts program. It is here that he began to sing ghazals and songs for his classmates. Shiv never undertook the final exams he needed to pass to receive his degree.
Personal life:
He met a girl named Meena at a fair in Baijnath, near the town of Jammu in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. When he went to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news of her death and wrote his eulogy Meena. This episode was to prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to distill into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh's daughter who left for the US and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote 'Main ek Shikra Yaar Banaya' (I have befriended a wild fowl), perhaps his most famous love poem. It's said that when she had her second child, someone asked Shiv whether he would write another poem. Shiv replied 'Have I become responsible for her? Am I to write a poem on her every time she gives birth to a child?' Sounds much better in Punjabi (Main ohdaa theka leya hoyaa? Oho bacche banayi jave tey main ohdey tey kavita banayi javan?). Shiv's wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur of Punjab. By all accounts they had a happy marriage: they had two children, son Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and daughter Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom Shiv loved immensely. By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, but both Batala and Chandigarh became soul-less in his opinion. Chandigarh brought him fame, but scathing criticism as well. Shiv replied with an article titled 'My Hostile Critics'. Meanwhile his epilepsy worsened and he had a serious attack while at a store in Chandigarh's sector 22.... Both children are in Patiala these days living a happy married life.
Shiv Kumar In Bombay:
In the early 1970s Shiv came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv's outrageous behaviour there is a story about his trip to Bombay. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukhananda hall. After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari), Shiv got on the stage and began "Almost everyone today has begun to consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is writing ghazals". By the time he had finished with his diatribe, there was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read Ek kuri jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai....(This song has been sung recently by Rabbi Shergill in his Album Bulla Ki Jana.) There wasn't a sound when he finished either. Encouraged by his friends, Shiv went to Bombay and try out in film-industry. He was not born for that, he found that out real fast. He could not write poetry to suit the scenes in the movies, he was born to write from his heart, from his inner voices, and he returned to Punjab.
Shiv Kumar-A Mystical Master Of Words:
Shiv's phenomenal approach towards the meaning of solitude makes him stand at the top of all those poets who have ever described loneliness. Shiv as the traditional poetical phenomenon was born out of the literary conjugation (kalmi sanjog) of Amrita Pritam and Professor Mohan Singh, to whom he appropriately dedicated his most important creation, Birha Toon Sultan(which means Separation thou art The King). Both Amrita Pritam and Professor Mohan had personally suffered in their respective love lives on account of circumstances beyond their control. In their romanticism therefore, a personal tinge of desperation was inevitable. Punjabi character is far more emotional, both in happiness as well as sadness, than all other peoples of the Indian subcontinent. To succeed as a poet, therefore, one must succeed in making people cry as well as bursting into hilarious laughter with the flow of the lines. In contradiction to Amrita Pritam and Mohan Singh, Shiv therefore, developed the most superb art of recitation. He will be long remembered, like Waris Shah, for this emotional rendering of whatever he wrote. I was deeply impressed by his exposition of this vivid magic in the very first poem that he gave at our house - -"Kee Puchhdey 'O Haal Fakeeraan Da" (What art thou inquiring of a sage?). This rendering had the touch of Sehgal's voice.
Poetic Journey of A Bohemian:
Shiv Kumar was a born poet who migrated from the poetic region of Sialkot to Batala at the most miserable moment of human history. "It was the Independence of the sub-continent in 1947 - the dreadful, painful, horrible, miserable, devastating, slaughtering and marauding phenomenon, which bisected the trouble stricken North India." The pangs of separation are recurrent themes of this great lyricist of the land. He has been hailed as one of the greatest poets of all times. Shiv Batalavi was a poet and a singer. He presented his poetry by reciting it himself. As a singer, he was discovered by and then introduced to the poetic stage by Dalip Singh, Deputy Director, Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala, at one of the Kavi Darbars the department would organize in different parts of Punjab, in early 1960s while Shiv was a student in F.Sc. He would accompany Dalip Singh, whom he addressed as "Bhaji" (Brother), to these Kavi Darbars and earned popularity in short span of time. His book "Dard Mandaan Dian Aanhin" published in 1964 by Darbar Publishing House, Amritsar is dedicated to the friendship of Dalip Singh, and has a collection of 27 poems. During eulogy at his funeral, Shiv was compared with 'Waris Shah' by Dalip Singh and Bishan Singh Samundari, then Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Shiv was not just a poet of a few dozen popular poems nor was his poetry limited to a couple of topics. He was a very versatile poet of many different styles and a wide range of subjects. Throughout his brief poetic career, his poetry shows a continuous progression from the early pangs of birha (pain of separation from one's lover) to increasingly complex emotions and different reactions to his inner sufferings and towards society at large. His sense of his own identity also went through many changes. He travelled a great distance from his first collection of poems Peeran Da Paraga [A Handful of Pains], published 1960, to his last major work Maein Tey Maein [Me and Myself], published 1970. Following is a brief survey of his published poetry:Peeran Da Paraga (A Handful of Pains) (1960). Shiv’s first published collection of poetry, consisting of 25 poems. It includes poems that he had written between 1957 and 1960 expressing pain and sorrow of separation and his desire for death. It includes some of his early popular poems. Lajwanti (1961). Within a single year after the publication of his first collection of poetry, Shiv appeared to have arrived at a level of maturity that was not as prominent in his earlier poetry. This collection has some remarkable poems on many different subjects. In all of his poetry, there are certain subjects that he has touched upon once, writing a memorable poem on it, and then never coming back to the same subject. In this collection, Sheesho, an exceptionally beautiful and comparatively long poem, falls in that category. Shiv’s description of the exploitation of a poor village girl by the rich landowner is remarkable both for its poetic qualities and for Shiv’s heart-rending pity and compassion about the poor girl’s plight. Aatte Deeyan Chiriaan (1962). This collection is quite different from the previous two collections, both in matter as well as in its various themes. Shiv experimented with different themes under a dominant mood of sensuous feelings. He also returned to the topic of birha in Shikra (A wild fowl) and couple of other poems. Once again, there are poems in this collection that display his wide versatility of subjects, including various themes that are limited to single poems, i.e., Hijra (Eunuch) and Zakham (A Wound). Shiv also further experimented in some poems by writing them in the prevalent style of expressing post-modern consciousness. Shiv was awarded the first prize from the Language Department of Punjab University for this collection. Mainu Vidaa Karo (1963). This is another collection of songs full of symbols of death and pain of separation that he expressed in different forms, including the bemoanings of a love-lorn girl addressed to her father in Dharmee Babula. Once again demonstrating his exceptional talent of interweaving Punjab’s culture in this poems. Dard Mandaan Dian Hanian (1964). This is a small book of 27 poems and songs Shiv compiled and dedicated to his close friend, whom he considered his elder brother, Dalip Singh. It was published by Darbar Publishing House, Amritsar. Birhaa Toon Sultan (1964). Shiv compiled most of his work into a book with 111 of his best known poems and dedicated this book to Amrita Pritam and Professor Mohan Singh. It was published by Lok Sahit Parkashan, Amritsar. Loonaa (1965). Shiv was awarded the Sahitya Academy award for this book in 1967, and this epic-like verse-play is considered by many of Shiv’s critics as his most significant literary achievement. Loonaa not only added a new dimension to the versatility of Shiv’s poetry; it also recast, to some degree, Shiv’s entire corpus in a new light. In particular, the profound and perceptive empathy of women’s emotions and feelings as victims of social inequity and injustice that Shiv portrayed in Loonaa, allows a deeper understanding of Shiv’s concept of love and gender-relations in his poetry than the stereotype of women as the poet’s self-centred object of desire. Similarly, the masterful use of imagery that set the tone and atmosphere of each of the eight acts of the verse-play, helps to highlight Shiv’s superb poetic techniques and equally expert use of imagery in his other poems. In Loonaa, Shiv reworked the theme of Puran Bhagat, a mythical folklore of Punjab about the implications of marrying a young girl with an old man. In the traditional story the young wife is depicted as an evil villain in her relationship with the grown-up son of her king husband from his first marriage. Shiv wrote his poem from the perspective of injustice to the young wife. He altogether changed Loonaa's character: rather than repeating the traditional portrayal of a wicked, lustful and cruel woman, he challenged the male-dominated society to reconsider their norms and moral values by making Loonaa a sympathetic character. Shiv presented a remarkably incisive and insightful appreciation of womens' sufferings in a patriarchy and exposed its moral values as the tools that force women to sacrifice their individuality to fit in various roles assigned to them. Reading the deliberate politics of the monarchical discourse in the legend, Shiv presented it from a woman’s point of view. More importantly, Shiv rejected the glorification of patriarchal assignment of women’s roles and instead forcefully brought out Loonaa's individuality. "Shiv Kumar … views her sexual subjugation and deprivation as a basic injustice to her and cause of her suffering. He vindicates the veracity of her Being by asserting her right to choose and by condemning her deprivation in marriage - through her own voice. In Loonaa, body is not merely a site of sexual desire but her humanity asserted through valuing and articulating the needs of her body and condemning their deprivation in marriage. The play is a strong assertion of a woman’s sexuality which has been ignored, abused, repressed or mythologized (as passive) in patriarchy." [source?] Shiv used strong sensual imagery to highlight Loonaa’s individual feelings. She repeatedly refers to herself as “fire,” “fire maiden” or "women-fire". Maein Tey Maein (1970). The last major work of Shiv - is a long poem of seventy-five pages with a unique style of conception as well as execution, in modern Punjabi poetry. Psychological background is the operative here, as Shiv himself mentions "The legend in this poem is not mine, nor is its truth my truth...whatever is mine in the truth of this legend is the truth of my being not of my person. Its psychological background is only a phenomenon of the intellectual and moral scepticism of the present generation. The truth of the hero of this poem is a protest against the false and hollow moral values of today. It is the revolt of modern man's disintegrated personality against the death of his true being". The poet describes his birth as the result of his mother's sexual hunger even when she is an unmarried woman. This hunger is sunk deep in the being of every woman. The poet questions the very fine nuances of morality as understood in very gross terms by a common man of today. Maein tey Maein makes one realize as why this is the last major work of Shiv - he has given his blood to its words and didn't care to save even one drop for his own physical life.