Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Shiv Kumar Batalvi Biography General
Shiv Kumar was a born poet who migrated from the poetic region of Sialkot to Batala at the most miserable moment of human history. It was the Independence of the sub-continent in 1947 - the dreadful, painful, horrible, miserable, devastating, slaughtering and marauding phenomenon, which bisected the trouble stricken North India. The pangs of separation are recurrent themes of this great lyricist of the land. He has been hailed as one of the great poets of all times.
Sh iv Kumar was born on July 23, 1936 in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh tehsil), in Punjab (now Pakistan). His father was a Patwari by the name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partition his family moved to Batala. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and rugged, thorny plants on the Punjabi landscape. Shiv was exposed to the -ramlila- at an early age, and it is to be expected that he received what was later to become his instinctive understanding of drama from these early performances.
Shiv passed his matriculate exams in 1953, from Punjab University. He went on to enrol in the F.Sc. programme at Baring Union Christian College in Batala. Before completing his degree he moved to S.N. College, Qadian into their Arts program. It is here that he began to sing ghazals and songs for his classmates. Shiv never gave the final exams he needed to pass to receive his degree.
Around this period, he met a girl named Maina at a fair in Baijnath. When he went back to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news of her death and wrote his elegy -Maina-. This episode was to prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to distil into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh-s daughter who left for the US and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote -Main ek shikra yaar banaya-, perhaps his most famous love poem. It-s said that when she had her second child, someone asked Shiv whether he would write another poem. Shiv replied -Have I become responsible for her? Am I to write a poem on her every time she gives birth to a child?- Sounds much better in Punjabi (main oda theka leya hoyaa? Oho bacche banayi jave te main ode te kavita likhda rehma?).
In 1965 Shiv won the Sahitya Akademi award for his verse-drama Loona. He married on Feb 5, 1967
His wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur. By all accounts Shiv had a happy marriage. He had two children, Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom he loved immensely.
By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, but both Batala and Chandigarh became soulless in his eyes. Chandigarh brought him fame, but scathing criticism as well, Shiv replied with an article titled -My hostile critics-. Meanwhile his epilepsy got worse and he had a serious attack while at a store in Chandigarh-s section 22. In the early 70-s Shiv came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv-s outrageous behaviour there is a story about his trip to Bombay as well. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukhananda hall. After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari), Shiv got on the stage and began “Almost everyone today has begun to consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is writing ghazals”. By the time he-d finished with his diatribe, there was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read -Ek kuri jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai…-. There wasn-t a sound when he finished either.
Shiv has been called a Bohemian. There were complaints about his drinking and some suggestions that his -friends- had him drink so he would exhibit his outrageous self. Shiv Kumar died in the 36th year of his life on May 7, 1973 in his father-in-law-s house at Kir Mangyal near Pathankot.
Shiv as the traditional poetical phenomenon was born out of the literary conjugation (Kalmi sanjog) of Amrita Pritam and Mohan Singh, to whom he appropriately dedicated his most important creation -Briha too Sultan-. Both Amrita and Mohan had personally suffered in their respective love lives on account of circumstances beyond their control. In their romanticism therefore, a personal tinge of desperation was in-evitable. Punjabi character is far more emotional, both in happiness as well as sadness, than all other peoples- of the Indian subcontinent. To succeed as a poet, therefore, one must succeed in making people cry as well as bursting into hilarious laughter with the flow of the lines. In contradiction to Amrita and Mohan, Shiv therefore, developed the most superb art of recitation. He will be long remembered, like Heer Warris Shah, for this emotional rendering of whatever he wrote. I was deeply impressed by his exposition of this vivid magic in the very first Kavita that he gave at our house - -Ki puchde ho hal fakiran da-. This ren-dering has the touch of Sehgal-s voice - -])ukhh ke Aab din bitad nahin- Shiv like Sehgal had the inborn gift of soul-touching expression.
BIRHON DII RARHAK - Shiv Kumar Batalvi Singer Nusrat Vateh Ali Khan
BIRHON DII RARHAK
Maae nii maae
Mere geetaan de nainaan vich
Birhon dii raRhak pave!
Adhii adhii raatiin -
UTh ron moye mitraan nuun
Maae sahnuu niind naa pave!
Bhaen bhaen sugandhiyaan ‘ch -
Banhaan phehe chaananii de
Taaviin saaDii piiRh naa save.
Kose kose saahaan dii -
Main karaan je Takor maae
Sagon saahnuu khaan nuun pave.
Aape nii main baalaRhii,
Main haale aap mataan jogii
Mat kehRhaa ess nuun dave?
Aakh suu nii maae ihnuun
Rove bul chith ke nii,
Jag kite sun naa lave!
Aakh su nii khaa laye Tuk
Hijaraan daa pakeyaa,
Lekhaan de nii puThaRhe tave!
ChaT laye tarel luunii -
Ghamaan de gulaab ton nii,
Kaalje nuun hauslaa rave!
KehRhyaan saperiyaan ton -
Mangaan kunj mel di main,
Mel di koyii kunj dave,
KehRhaa ihnaa damma diyaan -
Lobhiyaan de daraan ute,
Vaang khaRhaa jogiyaan rave!
PiiRhe nii piiRhe -
Ih piyaar aesii titalii hai,
JehRhii sadaa suul te bave!
Piyaar aisaa bhaur hai nii -
Jide kolon vaashnaa vii,
Lakhaan kohaan duur hii rave!
Piyaar oh mahal hai nii,
Jide ‘ch pankhruaan de,
Baaj kuj hor naa rave,
Piyaar aisa aangnaa hai
Jide ‘ch nii vaslaan daa
RatRhaa naa palang Dave!
Aakh maae adhii adhii raatiin
Moye mitraan de
Uchii uchii naan naa lave!
Mate saaDe moyaan pichhon,
Jag eh shariikRhaa nii,
Geetaan nuun vii chandraa kave.
Maae nii maae
Mere geetaan de nainaan vich
Birhon di raRhak pave!
Adhii adhii raatiin -
UTh ron moye mitraan nuun
Maae saanu niind naa pave!
ENGLISH TRANSALTION
PINCH OF SEPARATION
My songs are like eyes
That sting with the grains of separation.
In the middle of the night ,
They wake and weep for dead friends.
Mother, I cannot sleep.
Soaked in perfume,
But the pain does not recede.
I foment them
With warm sighs,
Yet they turn on me ferociously.
And need guidance myself.
Who can advise him?
Mother, would you tell him,
To clench his lips when he weeps,
Or the world will hear him cry.
Tell him, mother, to swallow the bread
Of separation.
He is fated to mourn.
Tell him to lick the salty dew
On the roses of sorrow,
And stay strong.
Who are the snake handlers
From whom I can get another skin?
Give me a cover for myself.
How can I wait like a jogi
At the doorstep of these people
Greedy for gold?
Listen, o my pain,
Love is that butterfly
Which is pinned forever to a stake.
Love is that bee,
From whom desire,
Stays miles away.
Love is that palace
Where nothing lives
Except for the birds.
Love is that hearth
Where the colored bed of fulfillment,
Is never laid.
Mother, tell him not to
Call out the name of his dead friends
So loudly in the middle of the night.
When I am gone, I fear
That this malicious world,
Will say that my songs were evil.
Mother, o mother
My songs are like eyes
That sting with the grains of separation.
In the middle of the night ,
They wake and weep for dead friends.
Mother, I cannot sleep
This Nazam has been sung by many singers but nothing to beat the Pakistani singers Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Shazia Manzoor.
Listen to it in the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at :-
Maae nii maae
Mere geetaan de nainaan vich
Birhon dii raRhak pave!
Adhii adhii raatiin -
UTh ron moye mitraan nuun
Maae sahnuu niind naa pave!
Bhaen bhaen sugandhiyaan ‘ch -
Banhaan phehe chaananii de
Taaviin saaDii piiRh naa save.
Kose kose saahaan dii -
Main karaan je Takor maae
Sagon saahnuu khaan nuun pave.
Aape nii main baalaRhii,
Main haale aap mataan jogii
Mat kehRhaa ess nuun dave?
Aakh suu nii maae ihnuun
Rove bul chith ke nii,
Jag kite sun naa lave!
Aakh su nii khaa laye Tuk
Hijaraan daa pakeyaa,
Lekhaan de nii puThaRhe tave!
ChaT laye tarel luunii -
Ghamaan de gulaab ton nii,
Kaalje nuun hauslaa rave!
KehRhyaan saperiyaan ton -
Mangaan kunj mel di main,
Mel di koyii kunj dave,
KehRhaa ihnaa damma diyaan -
Lobhiyaan de daraan ute,
Vaang khaRhaa jogiyaan rave!
PiiRhe nii piiRhe -
Ih piyaar aesii titalii hai,
JehRhii sadaa suul te bave!
Piyaar aisaa bhaur hai nii -
Jide kolon vaashnaa vii,
Lakhaan kohaan duur hii rave!
Piyaar oh mahal hai nii,
Jide ‘ch pankhruaan de,
Baaj kuj hor naa rave,
Piyaar aisa aangnaa hai
Jide ‘ch nii vaslaan daa
RatRhaa naa palang Dave!
Aakh maae adhii adhii raatiin
Moye mitraan de
Uchii uchii naan naa lave!
Mate saaDe moyaan pichhon,
Jag eh shariikRhaa nii,
Geetaan nuun vii chandraa kave.
Maae nii maae
Mere geetaan de nainaan vich
Birhon di raRhak pave!
Adhii adhii raatiin -
UTh ron moye mitraan nuun
Maae saanu niind naa pave!
ENGLISH TRANSALTION
PINCH OF SEPARATION
My songs are like eyes
That sting with the grains of separation.
In the middle of the night ,
They wake and weep for dead friends.
Mother, I cannot sleep.
Soaked in perfume,
But the pain does not recede.
I foment them
With warm sighs,
Yet they turn on me ferociously.
And need guidance myself.
Who can advise him?
Mother, would you tell him,
To clench his lips when he weeps,
Or the world will hear him cry.
Tell him, mother, to swallow the bread
Of separation.
He is fated to mourn.
Tell him to lick the salty dew
On the roses of sorrow,
And stay strong.
Who are the snake handlers
From whom I can get another skin?
Give me a cover for myself.
How can I wait like a jogi
At the doorstep of these people
Greedy for gold?
Listen, o my pain,
Love is that butterfly
Which is pinned forever to a stake.
Love is that bee,
From whom desire,
Stays miles away.
Love is that palace
Where nothing lives
Except for the birds.
Love is that hearth
Where the colored bed of fulfillment,
Is never laid.
Mother, tell him not to
Call out the name of his dead friends
So loudly in the middle of the night.
When I am gone, I fear
That this malicious world,
Will say that my songs were evil.
Mother, o mother
My songs are like eyes
That sting with the grains of separation.
In the middle of the night ,
They wake and weep for dead friends.
Mother, I cannot sleep
This Nazam has been sung by many singers but nothing to beat the Pakistani singers Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Shazia Manzoor.
Listen to it in the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at :-
SHIV KUMAR BATALVI - A BIOGRAPHY
SHIV KUMAR BATALVI - A BIOGRAPHY
Shiv Kumar was born in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh tehsil), in Punjab (now Pakistan). Shiv’s date of birth as recorded on his horoscope is July 23, 1936, while a latter birth date, October 23, 1937 is recorded on his matriculation certificate that was the only official birth record at that time. His father was a Patwari by the name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partition his family moved to Batala. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and rugged, thorny plants on the Punjabi landscape. Shiv was exposed to the ramlila at an early age, and it is to be expected that he received what was later to become his instinctive understanding of drama from these early performances.
Shiv passed his matriculate exams in 1953, from Punjab University. He went on to enroll in the F.Sc. programme at Baring Union Christian College in Batala. Before completing his degree he moved to S.N. College, Qadian into their Arts program. It is here that he began to sing ghazals and songs for his class-mates. Shiv never gave the final exams he needed to pass to receive his degree.
Around this period, he met a girl named Maina at a fair in Baijnath. When he went back to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news of her death and wrote his elegy 'Maina'. This episode was to prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to distill into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh's daughter who left for the US and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote 'Main ek shikra yaar banaya', perhaps his most famous love poem.
In 1965 Shiv won the Sahitya Akademi award for his verse-drama Loona.
He married on Feb 5, 1967. His wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur. By all accounts Shiv had a happy marriage. He had two children, Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom he loved immensely.
By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, but both Batala and Chandigarh became soulless in his eyes. Chandigarh brought him fame, but scathing criticism as well, Shiv replied with an article titled 'My hostile critics'. Meanwhile his epilepsy got worse and he had a serious attack while at a store in Chandigarh's Sector 22.
Shiv Kumar Batalvi, the poet, literally dominated poetic gatherings in his short life.
In the early 70's Shiv came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv's outrageous behaviour there is a story about his trip to Bombay as well. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukananda hall. After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari), Shiv got on the stage and began "Almost everyone today has begun to consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is writing ghazals". By the time he'd finished with his diatribe, there was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read 'Ek kuri jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai...'. There wasn't a sound when he finished either.
Another thing great about Shiv, was that he wrote one poem :-
PRABH JI SAANU IK GIIT UDHAARAA HOR DEYO
By saying, "Prabh Ji Saanu Ik Giit Udhaaraa Hor Deyo", Shiv gave all credit for his writings to The Almighty God, as if all his poetry was from that Divine Power. This speaks of his spritual leanings. This was the greatness of a poet who wrote best of the Punjabi Giits but according to him it was only God who had bestowed on him the power to write and he had nothing, of his own, to write or say.
Shiv has been called a Bohemian. There were complaints about his drinking and some suggestions that his 'friends' had him drink so he would exhibit his outrageous self.
Shiv Kumar died in the 36th year of his life on May 7, 1973 in his father-in-law's house at Kir Mangyal near Pathankot.
Here is a live interview of Shiv with Mahendra Kaul in London :-
Shiv Kumar was born in Bara Pind Lohtian (Shakargarh tehsil), in Punjab (now Pakistan). Shiv’s date of birth as recorded on his horoscope is July 23, 1936, while a latter birth date, October 23, 1937 is recorded on his matriculation certificate that was the only official birth record at that time. His father was a Patwari by the name of Pandit Krishan Gopal. After the partition his family moved to Batala. As a child Shiv is said to have been fascinated by birds and rugged, thorny plants on the Punjabi landscape. Shiv was exposed to the ramlila at an early age, and it is to be expected that he received what was later to become his instinctive understanding of drama from these early performances.
Shiv passed his matriculate exams in 1953, from Punjab University. He went on to enroll in the F.Sc. programme at Baring Union Christian College in Batala. Before completing his degree he moved to S.N. College, Qadian into their Arts program. It is here that he began to sing ghazals and songs for his class-mates. Shiv never gave the final exams he needed to pass to receive his degree.
Around this period, he met a girl named Maina at a fair in Baijnath. When he went back to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news of her death and wrote his elegy 'Maina'. This episode was to prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to distill into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh's daughter who left for the US and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote 'Main ek shikra yaar banaya', perhaps his most famous love poem.
In 1965 Shiv won the Sahitya Akademi award for his verse-drama Loona.
He married on Feb 5, 1967. His wife Aruna was a Brahmin from Kir Mangyal in district Gurdaspur. By all accounts Shiv had a happy marriage. He had two children, Meharbaan (b. Apr. 12, 1968) and Puja (b. Sep. 23, 1969) whom he loved immensely.
By 1968 he had moved to Chandigarh, but both Batala and Chandigarh became soulless in his eyes. Chandigarh brought him fame, but scathing criticism as well, Shiv replied with an article titled 'My hostile critics'. Meanwhile his epilepsy got worse and he had a serious attack while at a store in Chandigarh's Sector 22.
Shiv Kumar Batalvi, the poet, literally dominated poetic gatherings in his short life.
In the early 70's Shiv came to Bombay for a literary conference. In keeping with Shiv's outrageous behaviour there is a story about his trip to Bombay as well. Part of the conference involved readings at Shanmukananda hall. After a few people had read their work (one of whom was Meena Kumari), Shiv got on the stage and began "Almost everyone today has begun to consider themselves a poet, each and every person off the streets is writing ghazals". By the time he'd finished with his diatribe, there was not a sound in the hall. This is when he began to read 'Ek kuri jeeda naam mohabbat. gum hai, gum hai...'. There wasn't a sound when he finished either.
Another thing great about Shiv, was that he wrote one poem :-
PRABH JI SAANU IK GIIT UDHAARAA HOR DEYO
By saying, "Prabh Ji Saanu Ik Giit Udhaaraa Hor Deyo", Shiv gave all credit for his writings to The Almighty God, as if all his poetry was from that Divine Power. This speaks of his spritual leanings. This was the greatness of a poet who wrote best of the Punjabi Giits but according to him it was only God who had bestowed on him the power to write and he had nothing, of his own, to write or say.
Shiv has been called a Bohemian. There were complaints about his drinking and some suggestions that his 'friends' had him drink so he would exhibit his outrageous self.
Shiv Kumar died in the 36th year of his life on May 7, 1973 in his father-in-law's house at Kir Mangyal near Pathankot.
Here is a live interview of Shiv with Mahendra Kaul in London :-
Birth place of Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Birth place of Shiv Kumar Batalvi
Birth place of Shiv Kumar Batalvi in Bara Pind Lohtian Shakar Garh(Pakistan)
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