During the last few years of her life she suffered and suffered a lot. Cancer gradually ate into her body reducing it, to borrow a Punjabi phrase, into a handful of bones [Haddian di muth]. But a handful of bones or the skeleton of a person of heroic nature can have the power to speak and tell a story.

Hafiz Barkhurdar, the second poet to compose the thrilling tale of Mirza Sahiban, shows us in his narrative how the dust eaten skull of fearless protagonist Mirza, who was killed young, engages his predecessor poet Pilu in an uncanny dialogue which forces him to explore the secrets of his love and untimely violent death.

Even when she was a ‘handful of bone’ she imagined her imaginings i.e. composed her verses. Her sufferings were not merely physical. Her spiritual and intellectual anguish was far more greater: in the twilight years she saw her dream of having our oppressive social order transformed into an equitable one turn into its opposite.

In order to understand the immensity of Nasreen Anjum Bhatti’s sufferings, one feels compelled to quote Bertlot Brecht who wrote on the death of his mother: “And when she was finished they laid her in earth/ flowers growing, butterflies juggling over her…/She so light, barely pressed the earth down/ How much pain it took to make her as light as that!”

She never sported the persona of a stereotypical rebel though rebel she remained till her last breath. She didn’t allow her personal anguish and pain to blur her creative vision if we look at her last book of verses ‘Shamlaat’ [common land] that has been posthumously published by Sanjh Publications, Lahore. A number of poems in the book deal with the politics and the way it affects our individual and collective life. Writing poetry directly inspired or prompted by politics has always been problematic. Such poetry carries an intrinsic tendency to degenerate into sloganeering and didactic stuff in view of topical events of politics and partisan positions upheld by the forces opposed to each other.

Nasreen finds a way out by resorting to invoke larger than life characters of our history such as Madho Lal Hussain and Dullah Bhatti who symbolize people’s defiance and rebellion against the established order. One of her finest political poems is on the unending hostility that exists between the states of Pakistan and India affecting the fate of one and a half billion people. “This dividing line is hidden somewhere in the inside of you and me/ isn’t it so? / it’s dread that doesn’t let us connect and meet/ so the cause of separation is not the line etched on the land/ nor the lines on our palm/ it’s in our heart if one can find it out/ it’s in the heart if there is any at all”.

Nasreen, being a sensitive poet and conscious woman, knows how woman is less than what she is due to her historically conditioned slave psyche. “I hear that sufferings converse among themselves/ I hear that inside each person another lives who doesn’t let him live/ are these two persons born together or the one is born of the other?/ what do you think, friend?/ My husband has gone out somewhere. Let him return/ I will tell you the answer once I get it from him”.

Do read Nasreen Bhatti’s ‘Shamlaat’ if you are not afraid of poetry that may challenge your notion of poetry.

Jameel Ahmed Paul’s latest book “Parcha Kari” has been brought out by Punjabi Markaz, Lahore. Jameel Pal is a multi-faceted personality; he is a teacher, writer, research scholar, fiction writer, lexicographer and a journalist. And above all he is an indefatigable defender of the rights of the Punjabi language.

Prof Paul currently teaches Punjabi language and literature and has so far eighteen books on diverse subjects to his credit. The book, as is evident from the very title, is about journalism which is Prof Paul’s lifelong passion. He has kept his Punjabi daily ‘Lokai’ [people] afloat despite acute paucity of resources all these years, first in print and now in digital form. It’s a matter of pity, rather shame that the Punjab government which has specified quota for supporting Punjabi dailies hasn’t helped his paper. But Paul is, in the words of R.D. Laing, someone who can be counted among “madmen who would not submit”.

“Parcha Kari” deals with the history of journalism this side of the border which doesn’t have much to offer anyway because of criminal neglect the Punjabi language has suffered at the hand of state and society in the name of ill-conceived notion of national unity. The book discusses albeit briefly the historical evolution of information dissemination and emergence of modern print and electronic media. It also tells us in a simple manner what it takes to bring out daily newspapers, weeklies and monthlies i.e. information gathering, reporting, subbing, editing, layout, placing of photos, ads, editorial writing, use of journalese, social constraints and official restrictions imposed by the government of the day and the state.

After briefly touching the origins of journalism in the subcontinent, Jameel Paul traces the journey of the Punjabi language journalism in the Pakistani Punjab. Journalism in the Indian Punjab is a thriving industry as state and society patronize Punjabi as medium of instruction and means of communication. But it’s more a story of struggle here where a majority of Punjabi-speaking people live alienated from their linguistic and cultural roots. The book has no airy-fairy stuff to entertain us with. It reveals yet again how cruelly the people’s language has been ignored and scoffed at.

Jameel Paul obliquely exposes the cold reality of Punjabi power wielders who when confronted pretend to be unctuous patrons of arts but actually hold people and their precious cultural assets in utter contempt.

“Parcha Kari” is a history, a manual and a lament for our retrievable cultural loss. This book must be on the shelves of all libraries, small and big. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2017