Pashaura Singh Dhillon

Many of you have been asking me for an audio download of the poem I sang at the Kavi Darbar of the 542nd Guru Nanak Prakaash Utsav in Caruthers, California celebrating November being officially designated as Sikh-American Awareness Month. If you haven’t read my blog on that yet, you can do so here: Caruthers Makes History. If you’d like some basic information and terms in Punjabi Poetry, please also check out Punjabi Poetry At A Glance.

Without further adieu, here is my poem, which you can now listen to and download for free:

This year for Father’s Day, I received a very nice joint gift. My daughter, Navreet Kaur Dhillon, is a physician in the Bay Area, and also a very talented artist. My son, Navdeep Singh Dhillon, is a Creative Writing/English Literature lecturer in New York City.

Both my son and daughter collaborated via phone and internet from East and West Coast to create a CD cover for “Heer,” an album I didn’t even know I was making! I had recorded one track giving my own interpretation to Waris Shah’s epic poem, and uploaded it to FaceBook after several people requested me. It was (and still is) available for free download in a blog post I wrote, “Heer Forever Stands Tall (ਗੁੱਝੀ ਰਹੇ ਨਾ ਹੀਰ ਹਜ਼ਾਰ ਵਿਚੋਂ )” in addition to Audio Downloads (above in the navigation bar). Many have since asked me to sing some more tracks, which I had said I would do in my own time. Now, it looks like I better get moving!

Below is my daughter’s original drawing:

Original Artwork for CD Cover of "Heer" by Navreet Kaur Dhillon

And below is my son’s contribution. Have a listen to this CD, which currently only has one track, but there will more soon! Let me know what you think!

While you wait for “Heer” to be completed, check out my e-books, available in Punjabi (both Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts) and English. You can also download/listen to completed digital albums/CDs at www.pashaurasinghdhillon.com/audiodownloads

There are, of course, many poets in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, and English who I have read and been influenced by in some way over the years, but these eleven poets are perhaps the reason I am even a poet today. Their beautiful verses touched my soul from a very young age and helped me make sense of post-partition Punjab, as well as the world around me. It has taken me around 60 years to feel comfortable enough to pay homage to my all time favorite Punjabi poet, Waris Shah. This is my rendition of one part of his epic tragic love story,”Heer.” This particular scene is when Ranjha makes the difficult decision to leave Takhat Hazara.

Classic Punjabi Poets

Sultan Bahu (1628-1691) wrote in Punjabi and the Persian language, but is much more well known for his Punjabi poetry. What separates him from many other poets of his time (and indeed of any time) is that his verses are sung in a variety of genres associated with Sufi music.

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One of the questions I am often asked about is something that confuses many people: what are the various terms in Punjabi poetry? People have this misconception that Punjabi poetry is not at par with poetry from other languages in the region, such as Urdu or Hindi. It has an incredibly long history and is as complicated as any other form of literature. There is also a misconception that Punjabi is not a poetic language. What this is based on, I am not sure, but if this were true, at over 70 years old, I would have found another language to sing and write my poetry in by now!

Like many other ancient languages, Punjabi has evolved through various stages and Punjabi poetry is perhaps as old as Punjab’s Indus Valley civilization. It has beautiful and complex ballads both from the past and contemporary Punjabi poetry can easily be compared to verses from Shakespearean sonnets, traditional Japanese haikus, or modern “free verse” forms of poetry, including Spoken Word. Stalwarts from the past have contributed significantly to Punjabi poetry like Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu, Bullhe Shah, Chandar Bhan and Ali Haidar amongst many others. Bhai Vir Singh, Puran Singh. Mohan Singh and Amrita Pritam are considered luminaries who pioneered the new era in Punjabi Poetry. Properly defining the different styles and forms found in Punjabi poetry is an impossible task for someone who is not a literary historian. I have never taken a poetry class, or studied the form in an academic setting. I have read countless poems over the decades and they have all, in some shape of form, influenced my views on life and, of course, on my poetry.  Here is Punjabi Poetry at a Glance:

Definitions
The ghazal has its origins in the Arabic language and is traditionally considered a more scholarly form of poetry. It is a collection of couplets that embody a single thought or subject. A couplet is known as a sher. The plural of a sher is an ashaar(s). A  ghazal contains  5-15 ashaars and follows the rules of matla, maqta, behr, kaafiyaa and radif.
Here is an example of a sher from Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s poem, “ਮਾਏ ਨੀ ਮਾਏ”/ Mae Ni Mae :
ਮਾਏ ਨੀ ਮਾਏ/ Mae Ni Mae
ਮੈਂ ਇਕ ਸ਼ਿਕਰਾ ਯਾਰ ਬਣਾਇਆ/ Mai ik shikra yaar banalia

There are many subcategories of a ghazal and the rules that govern its definition can get very complex. For example, a ghazal is an arrangement of lines whereby the first two lines rhyme with each other which in turn rhyme with the fourth, sixth, eighth and so forth. Each couplet conveys a complete message and may be interconnected to continue a theme. I told you it was confusing!

Any poem which does not pass the criteria to be considered a ghazal is called a kavita in Punjabi and a nazm in Urdu.

For a more in-depth look at the intricacies of the ghazal and many of the terms surrounding it, check out this article, “What is a Ghazal?”

Infanticide in India

I completed the final version of the poem ‘Dheeaan’ not long ago when the news of infanticide started to get worse in India, especially in Punjab and Haryana. It seemed that there were new stories more horrific than the last several times a day. The ratio between newly born boys and girls dropped from 1000 to 700 and was still going down. While I recently put the finishing touches on my poem, I had been thinking about it since the senseless India- Pakistan wars in 60′s and 70′s.

I wrote the first version of ‘Dheeaan’ after listening to Noor Jahan’s beautiful rendition of the popular Pakistani war song “Eh Puttar Hattan te Nahi Wikde” meaning “Our sons cannot be bought in the marketplace.” I heard this song during the 1965 India Pakistan war. I still remember watching fighter planes being consumed by flames and exploding in mid-air, unleashing heavy artillery fire and a sea of bombs in the unspoiled wilderness just outside our village before returning to their base,  and huge tanks colliding with equally massive tanks in the Khem Karan and the Wagha sectors. My ancestoral village, Jandiala is almost the same distance (10-15 miles) from Wagha border towards Lahore as the village Bhakna is on the Amritsar side, where I grew up under the auspices of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna.

Here is Noor Jehan’s video:

I have always liked Noor Jehan’s melodic voice and this was no different. But as melodic as Noor Jehan’s voice was, or how much I loved its tune, the tone and message of the song always irked me. It wasn’t because I did not understand what was being said of Pakistani patriotism; Indian patriotism or any other country’s patriotic songs are not so different either. It was because of what was left unsaid. If sons cannot be bought at the marketplace, what is being implied about daughters? Are they more expendable or replaceable?

The other obvious reason that I found the lyrics of this song hypocritical was that it was a song about the glorification of senseless wars. In addition to it being a colossal waste of human life, it was even more senseless because it involved brothers fighting with brothers over something that could have been taken care of at the dinner table. The whole world was laughing at them when they were at each other’s throats, not once, but three times. My family and other close relatives, who used to live in district lahore told me just how pointless it truly was. There are Dhillons, Randhawas, Cheemas, Gills, Virks, Chatthas, Bhattis,Ghumans and so on, literally brothers fighting against brothers on both sides of the war and for what?

Only the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who lost their loved ones or had them seriously wounded, maimed and incapacitated for the rest of their lives in those avoidable wars could understand the true meaning of the tone of the song.  So while it is a pretty song on the surface with the ever so beautiful Noor Jahan, who, along with Lata Mangeshkar, is one of my all time favorite singers; I wish if such a tone and tenor could be employed in campaigns against wars, the dowry system, infanticide, and in support of women and girl-child rights, both in India and Pakistan and every where else for that matter. There are some helpful organizations such as Nanhi Chhaan, that are making great strides in their activism, but there are some things only musicians, poets, writers, and artists can do.  Check out my write-up on the Nanhi Chhaan foundation at Khalsa College here.

Coming back to my kavita , I rewrote the final version of ‘Dheeaan’ as I watched the same song sung by Noor Jahan posted on the you tube after so many years. And it is my hope that it will provide the story left untold by Noor Jehan’s rendition. The story of the daughters. It has been published in some well known Punjabi magazines and here: Punjabi poem in Gurmukhi. It was only recently that I put this kavita to moving images set to my voice and posted on the you tube and my FaceBook. I would love to hear your comments and if the words of this kavita move you, become my fan on FaceBook where I can let you know when I have new content. After many requests, here is my kavita with English subtitles:

On October 6, 2010, Pratibha Patil, the president of India, visited my old stomping grounds of Khalsa College, Amritsar, to preside over the ‘Nanhi Chhaan’ campaign to “save the girl child,” an issue I hold very dear to me. While another glorious chapter has been added to 118 year old history of Khalsa College,, when for the first time the president of India took part in a function of the College. I wrote my poem over 30 years ago and since then have raised a son and daughter, with my wife, Inderbir Dhillon, and have two beautiful grand-daughters. So this is obviously not a new issue for me, but one that has become stronger over the years, and it is my hope that through more publicized events like this, her visit will enlighten and help change the current policies and mindset of Punjab as well as motivate other states (and other countries) to adopt this model for spreading awareness of women empowerment and other environmental issues concerning society at present as expected.

My poem was written with the hope of accomplishing this same task and I have recently created a moving image slideshow with images set to my voice to create yet another facet of this issue.

Below is the Punjabi version of my poem. I usually create an English translation of my poems when asked. If you would like to see one with English subtitles, contact me or leave a comment, and I am more than happy to do so in the near future. If you are interested in learning about the story behind this kavita, check out kavita di kahani here. In the meantime, ponder over my kavita, “Dheeaan” and let me know what you think: