Writer: Sukhinder‘Aihsas Di Pir’ (Pain of Realization) is the first book of ghazals (sonnets) published by the Canadian Punjabi poet Bhupinder Dule.
There is always a danger of ideas left behind as of less significance in a poetic creation if there is too much significance given to the use of musical words in the craft of poetry writing. And in this way, it can even effect the clarity of the ideas embedded in the poetic creation. After reading Bhupinder Dule’s ghazals, I have felt like this.
Bhupinder Dule doesn’t give first priority to ideas in his ghazals. His priority is towards the use of musical words. Use of musical words gives a momentary enjoyment to the reader/listener. For illustration of this point, we can go through Bhupinder Dule’s following poetry pieces:
1. Whenever it comes to my mind
it satisfies the thirst of my heart
churning at dawn echoes
sa re ga ma, sa re ga ma
2. Music that waves of this river are making
touches the desert of my heart like a mirage
3. Could not find a suitable place to burst into a shower
these dark clouds continued to wander from desert to desert
We can also witness wide use of thoughtless musical words in the present day pop music and Indian Bolywood film music. But this trend in the punjabi ghazal writing is not new. We can see heavy use of such thoughtless musical words by the well known ghazal writer Sadhu Singh Hamdard and many other ghazal writing poets of his group. These ghazal writers could be considered among those writers who believed in ‘art for the sake of art’ ideology. Though in the present day, majority of the writers do not believe in such literary politics and they try to keep a balance of form and content in their writings.
Bhupinder Dule is more interested in the form part of the ghazal writing craft. In his ghazals he never gives any impression that he is clear about any ideology or thought process. Through his ghazals he himself makes this point very obvious for his readers:
1. For a longtime i have been walking with my eyes shut
on your earth, with my feet and a game plan of someone else
2. You are good with rhyme and rhythm
then why are you just limiting yourself to rhyming only
write about sufferings of life
if you could
3. Meanings continued to desert words
situation of poetry was infront of me
Though we donot find clarity of thought in Bhupinder Dule’s poetry, he certainly talks about many subjects in his ghazals. His own poetry would come to our rescue to understand his limitations of ghazal writing craft:
Stop now, you have written enough about your sweetheart
if you can, then write about the oppressed some times
Majority of his ghazals in this ghazal collection ‘Aihsas Di Pir’ are about individual concerns; social, cultural, political, religious, philosophical, environmental problems and issues have nowhere become explicitly subject matter of Bhupinder Dule’s ghazals. Otherwise, he has written some beautiful ghazals about the personal relationships:
1. Tales of enemity became little bit more longer
my friends embraced me in this manner
2. If it is not the closeness of innerself or of spirits
what use is the friendship of mere skeltons
3. Beautiful dresses, bodies, walking like a dancer
if you can touch from inside also, then do so
In the creations of many Canadian Punjabi writers, we find expressions of homesickness for the countries they have left behind. Such people feel that they were enjoying a very comfortable lives in their countries back home and after migrating to Canada they are living a miserable life. Where they have lost all of their wishes, desires, interests, hobbies, enjoyments under the heavy burden of day-to-day life. Bhupinder Dule also talks somewhat similar in his ghazals when he writes:
1. When we had started leaving behind our homes
it didn’t come in our minds that our hobbies will die
2. I feel disturbed whenever memories of
countyline, fields, paths, inn, home come to my mind
Immigrants could have come from any country around the globe, all of them have only one aim of their lives. How soon they can earn as many as dollars as possible. It is their desire to acquire a decent home, furniture and other amenities of life as soon as possible. To acquire such comforts of life they have to work hard day and night. In doing so, they are caught in a situation that better parts of their lives are spent in working over time and paying heavy bills of house mortgage etc. And they never get enough time to sit and enjoy their expensive and well decorated homes. Whenever Bhupinder Dule wrote the following pieces of his ghazals he is definitely talking about pathetic lives of many immigrants:
1. Under the big houses, under the smiles
so many desires are yearning under the ruins
2. I am calling a few bricks a home
i am supporting it but i am myself falling apart
Killing of daughters is becoming a serious issue in our society. Daughters are getting killed in the wombs of their mothers. It becomes the social responsibility of the writers, artists, intellectuals and critics to raise their voices against this social disease through their creative works. To create an awareness among the masses these people should also send a message through their creations that in the present day there is no diffrence between man and woman. In many areas of life, with their hard work, women have proved by making great achievements that what sons can do daughters can also do. Then why there is a discrimination with our daughters in our society? Bhupinder Dule has also attracted our attention when he also talks about similar ideas through his ghazals:
1. In his desire of getting a son
someone is destroying the womb of someone
2. Those who were killed even before they were born
lullabys are still echoing in the air for them
‘Aihsas Di Pir’ is Bhupinder Dule’s first ghazal collection. He still needs to be aware of his creative limitations and expectations. He will have to abandon his love for the use of musical words in his ghazals to some extent. If he will make use of social, cultural, political, philosophical, religious issues after understanding them more explicitly, then he will be able to write more powerful meaningful ghazals. I hope, while working on his next ghazal collection, Bhupinder Dule will pay more attention towards his such creative limitations.
(Malton, September 14,
2008)
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