Moving in Sand and Time : Pash the poet of impossible dreams

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Pash the poet of impossible dreams

Ambedkartimes.com congratulates Prof. T.C. Ghai for his great efforts in translating entire poetry of Avtar Pash, one of the pioneer revolutionary Punjabi poets who in his very young age became a house-hold name not only in his home state but also in the entire India. In addition, he is equally popular among the wide Punjabi Diasporas. Prof. Ghai’s translation (Pash: A Poet of Impossible Dreams) was released at the Martyrdom day remembrance ceremony at Pash’s native village (Talwandi Salem). At the ceremony, Prof. Ghai dedicated his book to Bha Ji Gursharn, a noted revolutionary activist in the domain of theatre art in the region. Among other recipients of the book at the ceremony were Prof. K.K. Pathak, Dr. Ronki Ram, Prof Tarsem Sagar, Sh. Sant Sandhu and Dr. Amolak Singh. The book is published by Pash Memorial International Trust. Prof. T.C. Ghai (Born 1937) retired from Delhi University as an Associate Professor of English in 2002. He has published two short novels and a Hindi translation of his short stories, Adamboo, originally written in English. He has translated a Punjabi poet, late Dr. Puran Singh Kanwar’s collection of poems, Rattan Di Rut (1984), into Hindi in 2000 and English in 2006.

While speaking at Martyrdom day remembrance ceremony at Pash’ village, Prof Ghai said that “in the premature violent death of Pash the Punjabi poetry has perhaps missed its own Pablo Neruda, or may be someone even greater”. Dr. Ronki Ram said that in contemporary times, the poetry of Pash has become rather more relevant and crucial in dealing with general myopia of free market economy led consumerism, and electronic media’s persistent campaign for festivities and glamour! Dr. Amolak reiterated on the need for pro-people policies which he lamented are nowhere to be seen in the present regime at the state and centre level. On the occasion different theater groups staged revolutionary plays including the famous play Aeh Lahoo Kis da Hai by Bha Ji Gursharn theater group.

for more reports on 23 March 2010, Talwandi Salem

Paash-Hans Raj Memorial Function in Talwandi Salem on 23rd March 2010

पौ फटते ही फिजा में गए पाश के नग्मे

Paash-A Poet of Impossible Dreams

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Gerbils: the compulsive diggers

Gerbils, also called sand rats, are rodent-like creatures of the desert. Most desert animals evade the stifling heat by leading a nocturnal life. Gerbils though, thanks to their unique adaptations, are happily diurnal. They are truly compulsive diggers, ready to burrow at a moment’s notice. Existing in large groups, gerbils collaborate to create, modify and actively maintain their living spaces in response to ever changing winds.

Surviving in the heart of the Thar, assiduously digging, ever searching, and ceaselessly communicating, the gerbils are the inspirations for this blog.

The attempt here is to understand the multiple intersections and contestations of culture, meaning ensemble of practices and ways of life of communities, with the discourse and practices of ‘modern development’. In particular the effort is to understand the travails, tribulations of lower levels of society that mostly remain either invisible or are assumed as mute variables to be acted upon and transformed through the dominant discourse of ‘modern development’. Here it needs to be mentioned that the rustic yet life reinvigorating celebrations of these marginal communities are sought to be understood and experienced. The threads of posts that weave together this tapestry of blog seek to understand and narrate experiences of marginal communities in their effort to negotiate their lives in the ever expanding enterprise of modern development in Thar.

These excavations into collective memory of history and everyday lived consciousness seek to resurrect subaltern and rustic experiences buried underneath the dusty layers of Thar, layers that contain within them the prodigal mass of longue duree history of the Thar. It is an effort to make sense of contemporary times marked by rapid escalation of assertions and claims of development by state and private, corporate and non- profit entities.

The boundaries between rural and urban life are increasingly getting blurred. This is evident in the changes that are coming in the morphology of human settlements. Rural urban continuum is ever expanding its boundaries, its gushing hold taking more and more of life under its sway.

New inter-dependencies are being created and age old inter-relationships between town and countryside are waning away and getting reconfigured like possibly never before.

These contemporary changes in Thar have much in common with similar processes in other fragile ecological regions. Gerbils of Thar occasionally get an opportunity to communicate about these bio cultural traditions undergoing such transformations.

In such an dynamic context impregnated with numerous possibilities, the blog strives to collect, reflect and communicate issues relating to well- being of fragile ecology of Thar, improvement in quality of life and livelihoods of communities especially those at the margins. In doing so the effort is to generate a dialogue regarding the importance of their cultural traditions of survival, regeneration and deep veneration of nature.

This blog is intended as a medium for silent meditation, like a mole burrowing deeply, never wanting to abandon its subterranean tunnels, attempting an empathy to surface phenomena.

Resurrecting experiences of change is about deciphering of multiple and intertwined relations between man and biosphere in Thar.

Contact for further communication:

to.rahulghai@gmail.com