Suman K Sharma
Phirdiyan Ghirdiyan Chhaaman is the latest poetry anthology of one of Jammu’s most prolific Dogri writers, Inderjeet Kesar. The 139 page volume contains sixty poems and eight geets.
The title, loosely translated as ‘The Looming Shadows’, sounds rather ominous. It has been taken from the poem Chhaaman – Shadows – which appears at page 74. By itself, the relatively short poem is a tongue in cheek counsel for the elderly to muster up courage enough to squarely face the ordeals of old age – Ehka trifla khane gitte, jigra badaa jaroori – you need to have stomach to take this kind of digestive.
Chhaaman sets the tone of quite many poems in the collection: Hon de jo hova da e, samjhi laina chahida – Whatever happens, let it happen – that’s what you have to understand (Badalda Samaan, p.23). Peed kusai’le naeen jaroey, naeen ghabrayana – don’t get upset if at times you can’t bear the pain (Naeen Ghabrayan, p.28). Apne ghre ch’ har ek syana, men ubbi naeen – everyone is wise in his home, I am not even that (Syana, p.41). Labbhe naiyon jind-di ch’, kish namaa dosto/Akkda e maanu phihri, jeene thmaan dosto – When there is nothing new to be seen in life, friends/A man gets tired of life, friends!(S’maa, p.70). And here is perhaps one of the most touching couplets of the collection:
Jaille dikkho chhaanta phadiyai, har baille mi ghoore di
S’jaa diye di khorey jindgi, migi kis kasure di
Glaring at me with a whip in hand any time of the day
Life is punishing me for what sin, I wonder (Sajaa, p.71)
Is this not the way many an elderly man feels today? Out of sync with the world around him, ignored, beset with pains both of the body and the mind, what should he do? Kesar offers sage advice to everyone, old or young. Forbearance, he says, is the antidote to man’s suffering:
Jiyan kiyan mado saren jindgi g’jarni
Sukh tu bhogna te peed bi tu s’harni
Life, friends has to be lived, this way or that
You’ll have pleasure and you’ll bear pain too (Bhyas, p.54).
Casting away his didactical tone at the close of the book, the poet satirises the hedonist:
Man kre toon kha haan rajji, man kre taan pee
Ji O diddha ji, tooen puttar, tooen dhi
Eat to your fill if you wish; booze if you want
Blessed be your belly; your only lad, your only lass! (Ji O diddha, p.139)
Temperance, and not over-indulgence, implies the poet, is the secret of happiness in life. Other poems on such topics as the fear of an impending death (Jhoore and Phloh’ni); the egotistic unconcern of the opportunists (Moka Prasti) and man’s intense desire not to be ignored (Nazarandaaz) add to the sombreness of the collection.
But that is perhaps not the poet’s intention, as indicated by him in the Preface. “In the book Phirdiyan-Ghirdiyan Chhama,” he says, “I have tried to delineate a few joys and sorrows, as well as some issues of the society.” (p.17). This is borne out by the compositions which are of a different tenor. Maan, Mother’s Day and Dadda eulogise mother and grandmother, Ladi is a gentle, one must say avuncular advice to the young married men to keep their wives happy. And surprise of surprises, there is this geet Dooa Phull, a longish poem spreading over five pages, that celebrates the birth of a second child in the family. Reminding one of the sehra compositions that used to be recited, in the times gone by, to herald the arrival of the groom at the bride’s place, Dooa Phull strings together names of all the members of the extended family in their diverse modes of elation at the joyous event.
Phirdiyan Ghirdiyan Chhaaman is an honest expression of how a decent man, past his prime, thinks of himself and the society around him. And in that lies its greatest merit.
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