Squadron Leader Anil Sehgal
Tenth September 2016 shall be remembered by the lovers of Dogri language for several reasons.
This is the day sonnets in Dogri were sung before the invited audience for the first time ever.
These sonnets are written by a Dogra called Kunwar Viyogi. The sonnets were composed by a young Dogra known as Kartikey Sehgal. This day, celebrated Dogra singer Seema Anil Sehgal created musical history by singing these evocative Dogri sonnets, in a live solo concert at Abhinav Theatre, Jammu. You may call 10 September 2016 as the Dogri Sonnets Day !

Jammu Jottings

There was an awe-inspiring response from the mesmerised audience who were drenched in the magic of poetry of Kunwar Viyogi, and the soulful renditions by Seema.
The programme, organised by Ms Poonam Jamwal under the aegis of Kunwar Viyogi Memorial Trust, shall always be remembered for the enchanting musical compositions of Kartikey Sehgal, a son of the soil whose talents extend to writing poetry, besides singing and acting.
Born on 4 September 1940 in village Agore, Samba, Randhir Singh Jamwal ( RSJ ) was eldest amongst a family of five sons and three daughters. His father Purakh Singh was a police inspector.
Poetry fascinated Randhir as a teenager, but affection and a sense of responsibility of seven younger siblings guided him to abandon his college studies midway and join the Indian Air Force in 1961.
He was commissioned as an officer in 1963. In 1965, he married a Dogra girl called Prem Dalpatia so that the very young siblings could get some additional motherly love and his mother some relief from the domestic chores.
RSJ was very close to her mother and wanted to do everything within his powers to make her life a bit more comfortable. In fact, he had joined the air force so that he could take good care of his parents and siblings. Somehow, this idealist son could not serve his parents for a long time.
The destiny had other designs. Within three years of RSJ drawing his first salary from the Air Force, his parents died, one after the other. When his parents expired in 1966, he voluntarily shouldered the responsibility to educate his siblings and bring them up in the society with the help of his wife Prem Dalpatia. She stood like a rock with his husband and looked after his young siblings like a real mother. Prem came from an affluent family and helped Randhir bring up his siblings all of whom were eventually well placed. All his brothers joined the armed forces as officers and the sisters were married to army officers.
All through his life, Randhir kept his interest in reading and writing alive. He wrote without any interest in publishing or seeking publicity. He was genuinely in love with literature.
As an IAF officer, he was known to be highly professional, dependable, intelligent and hard task master. However, he had a soft corner with great empathy for his colleagues and those placed under him.
” As a commanding officer at Air Force Station, Vadsar, in Gujrat, Randhir was strict and helpful at the same time”, says Wing Commander TNK Vishwanathan who served under the command of Group Captain Randhir Singh.
” You could go to him with confidence and talk your heart out, even in case of a personal, and emotional crisis. He would help and guide you as a family elder “, informs Vishwanathan.
By the year 1977, Randhir had served about 15 years in the Indian Air Force. Compulsions of the IAF duties had kept RSJ away from the main stream of the literary world, especially the world of Dogri literature.
After nearly two decades of literary hibernation, he came in contact with Prof Ram Nath Shastri, one of the torch bearers of Dogri literary movement. Shastri liked his writings and encouraged him to publish. To begin with, Shastri himself published Randhir in Nami Chetna, the mouthpiece of Dogri Sanstha, the premier Dogri literary body. It was followed by publication in Sheeraza, a bi-monthly published byJammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
With these publications, he was immediately recognised as a promising poet and his writings created a literary buzz in Dogri literature. Now, he was the new wizkid of Dogri literature.
He published his first book of poems titled Ghar, in 1979. This silent and unassuming writer was rewarded with national recognition when in 1980 he received a Sahitya Akademi Award for this very first book he published !
Announcement of the award created a kind of sensation in the literary circles. Everyone interested in literature seemed to be asking : who is Kunwar Viyogi ! At that time, hardly anyone knew who this charismatic poet was !
Incidentally, todate, he is the only Indian Air Force officer who received the coveted Sahitya Akademi Award while still in uniform.
Unfortunately, Prem was diagnosed to suffer from cancer and died in 1988. Randhir was shattered. He had three daughters of his own to bring up. He decided to remarry.
He married Sudha Chaturvedi, a brahmin from a well educated family. Sudha was employed at Ajmer, and drawing a handsome salary too as an officer. Sometime after their marriage, she was posted to Bhilwara, on promotion.
Randhir had gone through tough times in his life and now wanted to spend more time with literature, his first love of reading and writing. He sought premature retirement from the IAF. The couple decided to settle in Bhilwara.
Now, RSJ was fully devoted to reading and writing. He wrote tirelessly. He wrote poetry and prose. He wrote ghazals and free verse. He wrote sonnets in English and Dogri. In fact, he tried his hand at every facet of literature.
If he could find sometime from his devotion to literature, he started helping students study English literature.
He also guided young aspirants for the NDA, IAS, and the other such competitive examinations. It was a gesture that was completely voluntary and gratis. In fact, right from his childhood RSJ had a passion for teaching.
To my mind, my senior Randhir was simple, sincere, affectionate , honest, diligent and affable. He received tons of accolades in his literary career, and he had the grace of passing a few of these to those he himself admired.
In the year 2009 , I published my English translations of Dogri poems by Sahitya Akademi Award winner, poet Yash Sharma. A copy of this book, Tale of a Virgin River, was presented to Randhir Singh by his friend Yash Sharma.
One fine morning in early 2010, I got a telephonic call. It was Randhir Singh on the other side. Next 15 minutes he praised me to the skies, telling me how much he had enjoyed reading the translations, giving me a rundown of the finer details of the book !
” I am so proud of you, Anil, my young friend. You have done an extremely commendable job ! Your translations reflect the essence of original Dogri poems of Yash Sharma, and the reader gets the feeling as if he is reading some original English poems, and not any translations “, he exclaimed. That is how large hearted this hugely talented litterateur was !
Better known by his pen name Kunwar Viyogi, Randhir Singh Jamwal is the most prolific poet of Dogri literature.
As confirmed by his wife Sudha Randhir Chaturvedi, he wrote in Dogri nearly 1,424 sonnets, 700 poems, 33 stories, 6 novels, 25 essays, 1050 ghazals, 1000 couplets, 746 rubaian, 15 kundalian, 133 doha, 3 chusmusa, besides book reviews and random thoughts.
When Randhir expired in September 2015, Sudha took upon herself the onerous task of collecting all his literary works and publishing them too. Dogri language was alien to her. She spoke to me for help and guidance. I gave her a few names who could help her.
Can you believe it, at an age most people retire for good, Sudha learnt Devnagri typing so that she could herself type the poems of Randhir Singh with the least of mistakes !
It speaks volumes for the grit and determination of this lady that she has published all the works of Kunwar Viyogi after his death. Today students of MA in Dogri can easily read and download Ghar, which is prescribed in their syllabus, online. You can read all his works on the internet.
Kunwar Viyogi is a blessed soul. He has many claimants to his legacy, hopefully with no confrontation. If Sudha has published all his works, his daughter Poonam Jamwal has established a trust to promote his works. It is called Kunwar Viyogi Memorial Trust. She organises musical recordings, live concerts, and seminars to promote the writings of her father.
With financial contributions from the Trust, a small auditorium in the name of Kunwar Viyogi is built in the premises of Dogri Sanstha, Jammu, a leading organisation to promote Dogri language and Dogra culture.
It gives me much pleasure and pride when I think that Ilike Randhir Singh Jamwal, I too am a Dogra and a Jammuite. Like him, I also pursue literature. Moreover, I also donned the same uniform of the Indian Air Force that he did ! But, alas, I don’t write sonnets !

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