Amit Verma

I will not call her as“Indian Women Writer” but would prefer respectfully referring to her as legend of Indian literature She was oldest living writer till 31^st October 2005. Voice of Asian poetry Amrita Pritam falls silent. Her enduring themes were love, desire, identity, Partition, and freedom, especially a woman’s freedom and believe

It was 2-3 year back I bought one small book in interest, titled as “Paach Baras Lambi Sarak” I read that book every year and every time I read I feel like Amrita Pritam herself narrating short stories to me.

Her important works include ‘Kagaz Te Kanvas’ (poerty collection), ‘Aag di Lakir’, ‘Khabarnama’, ‘Chonven Pattre’ (Selected Works) and ‘Mitti Di Zaat’ (collection of short stories).

Since last two years she wasn’t writing anything new. She was in bed, couldn’t even move, sink into depression many times to the extent of suicidal thoughts/talks.

In the era of K serials, Indian Idol, Instant Crorepati games we must admit that we left behind our real Indian Idols behind…

Aaj maine apne ghar ka number mitaya hai
Aur gali ke Mathe pe laga gali ka naam hataya hai
Aur har sadak ki disha ka naam paunch diya hai
Par agar aapko mujhe zaroor pana hai
to har desh ka, har shahar ki
har gali ka dwar khat-khatao
yeh wk shaap hai, ek var hai
Aur jahaan bhi aazad rooh ki jhalak padhe
Samajhna woh mera ghar hai

May her soul rest in peace…

Online Writings:
Visions of Divinity - Some of her dreams and the poems they inspired
Stench of Kerosene - Short story from the Land of five rivers, translated by Khushwant Singh
Sahiban in Exile - Translated by Nirupama Dutt
Wild Flower - Short story in the Little Magazine

‘I Will Meet You Again’ Amrita Pritam (31.08.1919 - 31.10.2005)

Image link from Outlook India

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Literature, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.