Lohri and Baisakhi - Windows to a Punjabi's Life

During my search for the article on 'Sundar Mundriye', I  serendipitously came across some more  articles, that I had penned for the 'News Letter' of Punjabi Biradari. One of the articles is  on the festival of 'Lohri' and  another on the festival of 'Baisakhi'. The significance of these two festivals is not lost on any Punjabi worth his salt. Thousands and thousands of articles and volumes after volumes have been written on the origin and import of these two  festivals which are typical for Punjabis.  Yet, I had shown the temerity to write about them with a purpose and in my own way. I would not let go the opportunity of exposing them to a wider audience and readership which is afforded by modern devices such as  blogs. 

Here are the copies of the articles. Since the documents are very old, quality of the scans is nothing  to write home about.  Other minor mistakes and omissions  wrt spellings and grammar  may also be observed. These may please be condoned.  

Consider what Iqbal said

माना कि तेरी दीद के क़ाबिल नहीं हूँ मैं

तू मेरा शौक़ देख मिरा इंतिज़ार देख

Yearning, longing, pining and obsession

याद इक शोख़ की

याद इक शोख़1​ की शाम​-ओ-सहर2 आती है

ज़िन्दगी गोया3 कुछ दम को ठहर जाती है

सांस रुकती औ थमती है दिल की धड़क​

सारी हसती की तरतीब4 बिखर जाती है

एक बस एक ही मन्ज़र5 दिखाई देता है

उसकी तसवीर  चहुं ओर नज़र आती है

दिल के सहरा6 में रवां7 होती है ठंडी हवा

साहिल-ए-वीरान8 पे  मौज-ए-बहर9 आती है

फूल खिलते हैं तसव्वुर10 में आती है बहार​

बू-ए-खुश11 उनकी हर सिमत12 बिखर जाती है

 

Glossary

1. शोख़: Playful / mischievous ( beauty) 

2. शाम​-ओ-सहर: Evening and Morning - Dusk & Dawn

3. गोया : As if

4. तरतीब: arrangement , order

5. मन्ज़र: A scene / view

6. सहरा: desert

7. रवां: flowing

8.साहिल-ए-वीरान: desolate shore

9. मौज-ए-बहर: sea wave

10. तसव्वुर: imagination

11. बू-ए-खुश: खुशबू fragrance

12. सिमत: direction

Note: 

This is the poem I had referred to in my previous post. I had mentioned that a long time ago, two lines had suddenly popped up in my mind and I had not been able to dilate the same. The original lines were as follows

याद इक शख्स​ की मुझे शाम​-ओ-सहर आती है

वीरान ज़खीरे पर कोई मौज-ए-बहर आती है

Though I fortuitously got the inspiration enabling me to revise and expand on the above lines, I had digressed and had restricted the previous post to only include the article titled 'Sundar Mudriye Ho'.

This post is a course correction.

Sundar Mundriye Ho

 I am back to blogging after a long hiatus. This time too, the trigger has come from Yakhmi Bha. As mentioned by me umpteen times before, he bestows on me a privilege in that he calls me to give me an auricular preview of his latest poem. Keeping up the tradition, he called me a few days ago and recited his new poem. This time his interaction resulted in me getting reminded of an unfinished poem of which I had had the 'aamad' quite a while ago. The effect did not stop there because I got inspired not only to revise the two lines that had originally germinated in my mind but also to augment those lines with some more. Subsequently, I made a return call to seek his critical appreciation  of my effort. During the course of our chat, he was prompted by Mrs. Yakhmi to ask me to send them a copy of an article that I had written about  30 years ago. This article pertains to  'Sundar Mundriye' a folk song which is sung during Lohri, a unique festival of Punjab. I had written it for the 'News Letter' of Punjabi Biradari, an organization of Punjabis of Anushakti Nagar.  Fortunately, I was able to dig up a scanned copy of the article. I am reproducing that copy of the article here below. It will take a bit of doing to read this copy.