shiv kumar batalvi

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Shiv 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 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. 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?).
Shiv's arrogance is legendary, but he had good cause to indulge himself. To get back to his life, with some help from his father Shiv became a Patwari as well. This had been his father's vision for Shiv. The period that followed his becoming a Patwari are the most productive years of his life. A brief listing of his major published works follows, the translations into English titles are from Sharma's biography.
  • A Handful of Pains (1960)
    Contains an introduction by Amrita Pritam. Contents:
    • Cactus
    • A song of seperation
    • The fountain of tears
    • A curse
    • How long is the night still
    • To Life
    • On my birthday
    • The threshed tears
    • On my friend's grave
    • A song (addressed to the parching woman)
    • Butterfly
    • Nooran
  • Lajwanti (1961)
    Critical introduction by SantSingh Sekhon
    • A song (Oct '60)
    • Hope
    • Fasts
    • Expectant Woman
    • Remembrance
    • Lajwanti
    • Invokation to mother
    • Pilgrimage
    • The skeleton
    • The kiss
    • Sheesho
    • Accusation
  • The sparrows of kneaded flour (1962)
    AN introduction by Jeet Singh Seetal, contains approximately 25 poems including:
    • Streetlight
    • My room
    • Locust
    • The tinker
    • Almanac
    • Statue of Venus
    • The Exile
    • Eunuch
    • The falcon
    • An evening
    • Characterless
    • The stranger
    • Milestone
    • The Masked One
    • Loona
    • Ash Tray
    • Mother
    • A locust swarm
  • Loona (1961) A verse drama, considered to be Shiv's most original work and most significant literary product. Loona won Shiv the Sahitya Akademi award in 1965, he was the youngest person to ever have won the award.
  • Bid me farewell (1963)
    25 poems including:
    • Bid me farewell
    • I have to die young
    • The fragrance of Chamba
    • My life is passing
    • This song of mine
    • Bid me farewell, mother
    • O mother, the fragrant one
    • I will not live tomorrow
    • The toys of clay
    • The soul
    • The vain life
    • Speak with thy tongue
    • The roots of life
  • Invocation (1971)
    39 poems mostly written between 1963 and 1965, they include:
    • O lord lend me a song
    • What to ask of the predicament of the mendicant
    • With full moon over my head
    • The old house
    • A face
    • Accident
    • Invocation
    • Mourning
    • The wound (on the Chinese war)
    • The Elegy (for Nehru)
  • I and me 23 section
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 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.
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.
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Shikra

maae nii maae
maiN ik shikraa yaar banaaiyaa
ohde sir te kalgii
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te o chog chugindaa aaiyaa

nii maiN vaarii jaaNvaa!


ik ohde ruup dii
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maae nii maae
maiN ik shikraa yaar banaaiyaa
ohde sir te kalgii
te odhi pairii jhaanjhar
te o chog chugindaa aaiyaa

nii maiN vaarii jaaNvaa!
 
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