KEDARNATH SINGH JI WILL BE WITH US ON WINGS OF
POEMS.
KEDAR JI HAD A NOBILITY AND
GRACE LIKE HIS POETRY. HE RARELY DISCUSSED HIS PERSONAL PINK AND BLUE OF LIFE .
A constitutive generation of Hindi Poetry is departing from
us so rapidly. It is a very tragic and fearful scenario as very few poets are
left behind who personify innate depth and radiance of poetry. Last year kunwar
Narayan, Chanderkant Devtale, Doodhnath Singh and now Kedarnath Singh. Kedar Ji
was free from major health issues, that generally
have grip on persons of 80+ and everybody was quite hopeful that after
recovering from Pneumonia, he will resume writing actively. Alas! This hope
ditched us.
In the splendid generation of
Raghuvir Sahay and Kunwar Narayan, Kedar was probably most popular both as a
poet and as a human being and if we recall any poet more popular than him, it
was Baba Nagarjun. Kedar Ji has proved
very well that poetry can win laurels for you even without making it non
serious or simplifying it, but a poet has to stick to his roots, his native
land and his folks primarily. Nativity
always remained neuclus of poetry of Kedar Ji: Chakiya, his birth place or
Banaras where his poetic sensations got nurtured and flourished and Padrona,
where he worked as a teacher for a long tenure. He stayed in Delhi too for a
long span of time and his progeny too settled here, but he mostly dwelled in
Chakiya, Padrona and Banaras. Probably, this was the reason that often getting
bewildered with urbane life in Delhi, he
fled to his own rural native place, strolled in fields and leading a perfect
Bhojpuri life with his chums, enjoyed life. Besides, he felt quite at home at
residence of his elder sister in Kolkata that in spite of being a metropolitan city
carries fervor of a huge village and where he had plenty of Bangala poets as
friends. Poets generally don’t shift from their native soil and even if they
migrate, their native soil always remains with them. The conflict between
village and city always persisted in poetry of Kedar Ji. Residing in heartless
city like Delhi, he used to glance at a spade in his drawing room, with same
tension and reproach.
In his poetry too, kedar
Ji,not only successfully reflected local and rural sentiments with his own
idioms and highlighted issues, but also carved a niche for it in modern
creative world. His poetic journey initiated with Navgeet (Songs on
Contemporary issues, for creating awareness for change)) and many a voracious
readers might be still recalling his effective poetry for masses reflecting
rural issues and scenario: Crops will grow, life will grow/ Will grow in our
fields/ O! Cloud, I invoke you to come to our fields. This phase of poetry of
Kedar Ji stirred restive mind of the new generation that was experiencing
disquietude to establish its roots amidst tradition and established norms of
creativity:
Maa has planted Tulsi in
courtyard /And father a huge Baniyan tree/ Where shall I plant my small rose
shrub/ Maiden Poetry Book of kedar Ji ‘Abhi Bilkul Abhi’ and his poems included
in ‘Teesra Saptak’ had gained him wide recognition, but after that followed new
deviations of his sentiments; diverted more towards modernism and lesser
towards romanticism. With his second poetry book, published after gap of
several years, he got established as a poet who conversed in language of a
committed poet and four dimensions of new poetry and inherent attack and
counter attack in it. This was ‘a
language stuck amidst teeth’ where issues were passing through a phase in which
calling a spade as spade was like picking it from proper place and placing it
amongst unknown culprits’.
Nature is persistently present
in poetry of Kedarnath Singh Ji, that was with him right from his first poetry
book and in his last poetry book till date ‘Srishti Pr Pahra’, it has more intensely impregnated. It a great
potential of Kedar Ji’s poetry that even a petty object or an ordinary human
being becomes distinct and places him in such a heart rendering perspective and
does not have to frame any personal statement/explanation. ‘Holding her hand in
my hand/ I contemplated/ Entire Universe should be as cozy and ravishing as her
hand is’/ is such a popular imagery. Kedar Ji
often turned a point or scene into a complete statement, due to which his
poetry was not very prominently vocalized and its tune remained subdued and he several times met with
criticism for not emerging out of these images and never directly commenting on
terrific socio-political realities.
Often, a poet lies hidden in
his poems. Kedar Ji had a nobility and grace as that of his poems. He rarely
talked about thick and thin of his life. He responded after too much of
persuasion, but he liked to talk a lot about others, his close friends—just as
about kailashpati Nishad and especially enjoyed chatting with younger
generation of writers. Letters written to Nishad Ji had been compiled and
published as a Book. He always felt awkward when somebody sang laurels about
him on stage and when anybody started giving an elaborate introduction about him;
he used to interrupt to stop him for doing so. Those who had ever chance to
travel with him or spend an evening with him, know very well how pleasant it
had been. He was HOD in Hindi Department of J.N.U., but very much unlike other
academicians; he was always away from typical image of teacher. His Prose Book
‘Panchayat in kabristan’ though not much in news, depicts a lot how much
concern he had for common people.
In his last days, Kedar Ji
was occupied with exploring and compiling his published works in various
magazines and hopefully, his New Poetry Book and New Collection gets published
soon. But, it is a strange and tragic co incidence that is his last collection,
his concluding poem points out towards knock of departure from this mortal
world and indicates life after death. ‘Where shall I go/ Will remain here
only/Like impressions of my hand/On a door/Like aroma of earthen lamp lit and
placed on recesses of wall to invoke Goddess /Like fragrance in a box/
My English Translation based
on Article composed by Senior Poet Manglesh Dubral in Hindi (published in
Hindustan.N.Delhi on March 21st, 2018)
RAJNI CHHABRA
😊