Writer: Sukhinder
Gurdial Kanwal is active as a Canadian Punjabi writer for the last four decades. ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ is his fourth poetry collection published. He has also published ‘Sajjre Sufne’ (1970), ‘Meel Pathar’ (1978) and ‘Kach Kankran’ (1981).
It will be suitable to call majority of poems included in ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ as poems dealing with personal concerns. In this collection, however, there are couple of poems which are not about personal concerns. In a broad sense social, cultural, political or religious issues have not become the motive for writing majority of poems included in this collection. In these poems merely personal concerns have been made the cultural theme and we find poetic dialectics of these issues in a realistic manner.
We can start discussion about this book with a quote from a poem ‘Whatever I Do’:
Whatever I do
right or wrong
i eat its fruit
or experience punishment
Gurdial Kanwal believes that life is a place of action. Henceforth, with hard work we make big achievements in our life. But in many instances it does happen that hard working people are suffering in this world but people who are crook and involved in all kinds of criminal activities make big achievements and are bestowd with big honours in the society. Thus, sometimes, the commonly accepted truth of many popular proverbs in life seem to be untrustworthy.
Poem ‘Black Sun’ in ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ talks about the personal relationships. Man is known by three human relationships: husband, son and father. In society man is recognized as good or bad according to the role he played to fulfill these relationships. Gurdial Kanwal believes that in the development of these relationships the role played by parents and wives is very important. He thinks that the kind of a son will become when he grows up as a boy depends on the kind of training he would get from his parents. He also believes that the wife plays a major role in nurturing the good or bad image of a man in the life. A good wife with her love and affection tries to move her husband along with her as a good friend, she helps him in his difficult times and considers his pains and sufferings as her own. In this way mutual liking for each other starts growing in husband and wife and they like to live with each other. But on the otherhand if wife is very proudy, who shows her ego by blaming her husband on every chance she gets; in the presence of house guests she insults her husband to prove that her husband is a useless person - then her husband will not be able to show his good side ever. He will develop inferiority complex. He will start taking his wife as his enemy and not a friend or a life partner. Gurdial Kanwal’s poem ‘Black Sun’ gives us such an awareness of human relationships:
1. I am not a good son
nor am i a good husband
and neither i am a good father
i don’t know why ?
I am feeling many times
is this my fault
or it is the fault of my parents
or my both wives are
responsible for this
2. Mother had taught me
how to walk with my feet
to earn my livelihood
to learn as how to read and write
mother, everything was taught by you
but why didn’t you teach me
how to live my life
Some of the poems of this poetic collection tell us that Kanwal doesn’t have clarity on thinking level. Especially, when he talks about the effects of alcohol on the thinking of man. Gurdial Kanwal tries to present this view that under the influence of alcohol man becomes more creative. In this process, as his proof, he presents the evidence of poets such as Ummer Khyam, Waris Shah and Shiv Kumar Batalvi and tries to prove that, merely, they were fine poets because they were alcoholics. This thing is not right. Scientific evidence is absolutely not in favour of Gurdial Kanwal’s such views. Under the influence of alcohol man certainly feels more creative - but only for a little time - then his creative senses start becoming very lazy and start losing awareness of his surroundings or his own self. In addition to this man also becomes sick with many serious diseases. Alcoholic people after getting drunk are not capable of doing any serious creative work. Gurdial Kanwal’s ignorance about the influence of alcohol on human brain or creative sensibilities is very obvious from his views expressed in his poem ‘Blame’:
1. Everything, i am hearing
with my own ears
that source of
every feud is
alcohol
how could i accept
how could i trust
2. You should also
think today Shiv Kumar
Ummer Khyam
Waris Shah
were the creation of alcohol
alcohol drinking
gives birth to good thinking
After reading this poetry collection, one feels that Gurdial Kanwal is not absolutely ignorant about the social, political, economical and religious issues faced by our society. Although majority of his poems are dealing with personal concerns, yet he also talks about other problems and gives his views as well. A stanza from his poem ‘Do Not Disturb Our Graves’ proves this point:
Today child is not secure
even in his mother’s womb - he is disturbed
tv and radio antenas also
are interested in attracting bloody news
newspapers hot like fire
drop on our doorsteps
with a thud
Punjabis are influenced heavily by the religion and religious politics. As a consequence, punjabi community has gone under a big upheaval during the last three decades. Punjabis were affected with the upheaval whereever they were living around the globe. Punjabi community in Canada was also influenced by these worldly events affecting Punjabi’s worldwide. Increasing influence of politics on religious institutions and its drastic effects have left a deep impression on the Canadian Punjabi literature. Like many other Canadian Punjabi poets Gurdial Kanwal has also made comments about the relationship of ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ in his poems. His poem ‘Symbol’ attracts our attention due to this reason:
When religious institutions
become politicised
then always chair becomes
higher than the human beings
In 1947 India got independence from the British. But before the British left India they divided it into two parts. One part was called India, the other part was known as Pakistan. Effect of this partition emerged in the form of a tragedy of epic dimensions. People of India who were living like brothers and sisters became enemies of each other in just one night. Religious leaders played a big role in giving birth to this tragedy. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jainis, Bodhis blinded under the influence of religious fanaticism raped each others mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and they murdered their own friends and neighbours. Province of Punjab had to bear the brunt of this religious madness. In this great tragedy of 1947 more than 10 million people were killed and a bigger number became homeless. This tragedy left a permanent mark on the memories of the people of Indo sub continent. Hundreds of books have been written and published on this subject by the writers of India and Pakistan describing the impact of this great tagedy on the psyche of the people of this region.
In the province of Punjab in India, in the last three decades, religious fundamentalist terrorists have once again tried to create conditions similar to 1947. These religious fundamentalist terrorists took the innocent people out from the buses and shot them dead with the bursts of their AK-47 machine guns. In the name of controlling the religious fundamentalists in Punjab the Punjab Police and Central Reserve Police of India killed thousands of innocent young Punjabi men in the border areas. These events once again left a deep impression on the psyche of the punjabi writers. These punjabi writers whether they were living and writing in India or they were settled in U.K., U.S.A., Canada or any other country - they once again remembered the great human tragedy of 1947. They wished that a human tragedy of such an epic dimension should never be allowed to happen in our homeland Punjab, India. Gurdial Kanwal has also expressed his concern about this tragedy of epic dimensions in his poem ‘Heated Circuit’:
In 1947
my country was divided
nations were divided
burnings, murders
dead bodies were littered in the wilderness
a voice emerging from the graves
calling Waris Shah
not one Heer
but hundreds of Heers
eager to feed sweets to their sweethearts
are counting dead bodies in the jungles
water of five rivers of Punjab
is remembering 1947
once again, it is giving shame
to the people who were
responsible for division
My reading of ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ poetry collection has given me a feeling that at the moment majority of Gurdial Kanwal’s poems are limited to the personal concerns. But I hope, in his future books, he will certainly make other problems and issues as subject matter of his poems too.
Accepting such creative limitations of Gurdial Kanwal’s poetry, we should welcome his poetry collection ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’. Because, publication of this book has definitely made the Canadian Punjabi literature richer in the areas of books published dealing with personal concerns in our lives.
(Malton, September 15, 2008)
Gurdial Kanwal is active as a Canadian Punjabi writer for the last four decades. ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ is his fourth poetry collection published. He has also published ‘Sajjre Sufne’ (1970), ‘Meel Pathar’ (1978) and ‘Kach Kankran’ (1981).
It will be suitable to call majority of poems included in ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ as poems dealing with personal concerns. In this collection, however, there are couple of poems which are not about personal concerns. In a broad sense social, cultural, political or religious issues have not become the motive for writing majority of poems included in this collection. In these poems merely personal concerns have been made the cultural theme and we find poetic dialectics of these issues in a realistic manner.
We can start discussion about this book with a quote from a poem ‘Whatever I Do’:
Whatever I do
right or wrong
i eat its fruit
or experience punishment
Gurdial Kanwal believes that life is a place of action. Henceforth, with hard work we make big achievements in our life. But in many instances it does happen that hard working people are suffering in this world but people who are crook and involved in all kinds of criminal activities make big achievements and are bestowd with big honours in the society. Thus, sometimes, the commonly accepted truth of many popular proverbs in life seem to be untrustworthy.
Poem ‘Black Sun’ in ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ talks about the personal relationships. Man is known by three human relationships: husband, son and father. In society man is recognized as good or bad according to the role he played to fulfill these relationships. Gurdial Kanwal believes that in the development of these relationships the role played by parents and wives is very important. He thinks that the kind of a son will become when he grows up as a boy depends on the kind of training he would get from his parents. He also believes that the wife plays a major role in nurturing the good or bad image of a man in the life. A good wife with her love and affection tries to move her husband along with her as a good friend, she helps him in his difficult times and considers his pains and sufferings as her own. In this way mutual liking for each other starts growing in husband and wife and they like to live with each other. But on the otherhand if wife is very proudy, who shows her ego by blaming her husband on every chance she gets; in the presence of house guests she insults her husband to prove that her husband is a useless person - then her husband will not be able to show his good side ever. He will develop inferiority complex. He will start taking his wife as his enemy and not a friend or a life partner. Gurdial Kanwal’s poem ‘Black Sun’ gives us such an awareness of human relationships:
1. I am not a good son
nor am i a good husband
and neither i am a good father
i don’t know why ?
I am feeling many times
is this my fault
or it is the fault of my parents
or my both wives are
responsible for this
2. Mother had taught me
how to walk with my feet
to earn my livelihood
to learn as how to read and write
mother, everything was taught by you
but why didn’t you teach me
how to live my life
Some of the poems of this poetic collection tell us that Kanwal doesn’t have clarity on thinking level. Especially, when he talks about the effects of alcohol on the thinking of man. Gurdial Kanwal tries to present this view that under the influence of alcohol man becomes more creative. In this process, as his proof, he presents the evidence of poets such as Ummer Khyam, Waris Shah and Shiv Kumar Batalvi and tries to prove that, merely, they were fine poets because they were alcoholics. This thing is not right. Scientific evidence is absolutely not in favour of Gurdial Kanwal’s such views. Under the influence of alcohol man certainly feels more creative - but only for a little time - then his creative senses start becoming very lazy and start losing awareness of his surroundings or his own self. In addition to this man also becomes sick with many serious diseases. Alcoholic people after getting drunk are not capable of doing any serious creative work. Gurdial Kanwal’s ignorance about the influence of alcohol on human brain or creative sensibilities is very obvious from his views expressed in his poem ‘Blame’:
1. Everything, i am hearing
with my own ears
that source of
every feud is
alcohol
how could i accept
how could i trust
2. You should also
think today Shiv Kumar
Ummer Khyam
Waris Shah
were the creation of alcohol
alcohol drinking
gives birth to good thinking
After reading this poetry collection, one feels that Gurdial Kanwal is not absolutely ignorant about the social, political, economical and religious issues faced by our society. Although majority of his poems are dealing with personal concerns, yet he also talks about other problems and gives his views as well. A stanza from his poem ‘Do Not Disturb Our Graves’ proves this point:
Today child is not secure
even in his mother’s womb - he is disturbed
tv and radio antenas also
are interested in attracting bloody news
newspapers hot like fire
drop on our doorsteps
with a thud
Punjabis are influenced heavily by the religion and religious politics. As a consequence, punjabi community has gone under a big upheaval during the last three decades. Punjabis were affected with the upheaval whereever they were living around the globe. Punjabi community in Canada was also influenced by these worldly events affecting Punjabi’s worldwide. Increasing influence of politics on religious institutions and its drastic effects have left a deep impression on the Canadian Punjabi literature. Like many other Canadian Punjabi poets Gurdial Kanwal has also made comments about the relationship of ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ in his poems. His poem ‘Symbol’ attracts our attention due to this reason:
When religious institutions
become politicised
then always chair becomes
higher than the human beings
In 1947 India got independence from the British. But before the British left India they divided it into two parts. One part was called India, the other part was known as Pakistan. Effect of this partition emerged in the form of a tragedy of epic dimensions. People of India who were living like brothers and sisters became enemies of each other in just one night. Religious leaders played a big role in giving birth to this tragedy. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jainis, Bodhis blinded under the influence of religious fanaticism raped each others mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and they murdered their own friends and neighbours. Province of Punjab had to bear the brunt of this religious madness. In this great tragedy of 1947 more than 10 million people were killed and a bigger number became homeless. This tragedy left a permanent mark on the memories of the people of Indo sub continent. Hundreds of books have been written and published on this subject by the writers of India and Pakistan describing the impact of this great tagedy on the psyche of the people of this region.
In the province of Punjab in India, in the last three decades, religious fundamentalist terrorists have once again tried to create conditions similar to 1947. These religious fundamentalist terrorists took the innocent people out from the buses and shot them dead with the bursts of their AK-47 machine guns. In the name of controlling the religious fundamentalists in Punjab the Punjab Police and Central Reserve Police of India killed thousands of innocent young Punjabi men in the border areas. These events once again left a deep impression on the psyche of the punjabi writers. These punjabi writers whether they were living and writing in India or they were settled in U.K., U.S.A., Canada or any other country - they once again remembered the great human tragedy of 1947. They wished that a human tragedy of such an epic dimension should never be allowed to happen in our homeland Punjab, India. Gurdial Kanwal has also expressed his concern about this tragedy of epic dimensions in his poem ‘Heated Circuit’:
In 1947
my country was divided
nations were divided
burnings, murders
dead bodies were littered in the wilderness
a voice emerging from the graves
calling Waris Shah
not one Heer
but hundreds of Heers
eager to feed sweets to their sweethearts
are counting dead bodies in the jungles
water of five rivers of Punjab
is remembering 1947
once again, it is giving shame
to the people who were
responsible for division
My reading of ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’ poetry collection has given me a feeling that at the moment majority of Gurdial Kanwal’s poems are limited to the personal concerns. But I hope, in his future books, he will certainly make other problems and issues as subject matter of his poems too.
Accepting such creative limitations of Gurdial Kanwal’s poetry, we should welcome his poetry collection ‘Mooh Bolda Suraj’. Because, publication of this book has definitely made the Canadian Punjabi literature richer in the areas of books published dealing with personal concerns in our lives.
(Malton, September 15, 2008)
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