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The grand old man of the Punjabi literature Surinder Singh Narula who passed away recently in Ludhiana where he lived most of his life, belonged to a tribe of Punjabi writers who not only had a background in English but also made their debut as writers in English before switching to Punjabi in the fifth and sixth decade of the last century. Besides Narula, this tribe included some other grand daddies of Punjabi literature like Sant Singh Sekhon, Dr Mohan Singh Diwana, Prof Puran Singh, Gurbax Singh Preetlari, I.C.Nanda and Balwant Gargi. They brought freshness of ideas, treatment and forms to Punjabi literature by virtue of their access to current trends and streams in western creative writing and criticism. Considered brilliant and the most energised Punjabi litterateurs of their time, they were the first to throw open the doors of Punjabi literature to experimentation, in both form and content. Till then, Punjabi creative writing had been mostly caged in traditional forms and fettered with a long chain of taboo subjects. Narula, who did his
masters in English literature from Government College, Lahore, and
taught English in colleges at Faridkot and Luidhiana, virtually opened
his account in Punjabi literature with the novel Payo Puttar
(Father and Son) even though some of his writings had appeared
before it. Ironically, though he wrote 12 more novels besides five
collections of short stories, seven books of criticism, two collections
of poems, his literary identity remained stuck with this novel only.
This book was not only translated in 13 languages but was also part of
graduate and postgraduate syllabi of universities in Punjab for many
decades. In fact with Payo Puttar, Narula became one of the writers who ushered in a movement of zatharathwaad (realism) in Punjabi novel writing. Till then except for Unviahi Maan (The Unwedded Mother) by Gurbax Singh Preetlari, most of the Punjabi novels were mainly dilating on themes related to idealism, religion or valour of Punjabi rustics bordering on mythology. But Payo Puttar not only pioneered in shifting the storyline of the Punjabi novel from the rural to the urban middle class environment but also marked a departure in narration by using stream of consciousness to tell the story and creating a language that was oven-fresh, though cerebral.`A0 However, this very style of his narration and language which was lauded in the Punjabi literary world, became a limiting factor for his creativity in his later years. In comparison to his contemporaries who were using crisp language and racy styles, his books, including Payo Puttar, failed to click with the common reader. Yet, it remained much talked about in literary circles and was prescribed in the university syllabi and was a must for students and teachers of Punjabi literature. No matter how the critics grade a writer, ultimately he wants to be read by the people. That was true about Narula as well. According to Bhushan, an eminent Punjabi writer, once a Chandigarh-based literary organisation organised a face-to-face with Surinder Singh Narula in the city. He almost wept when frivolous questions were being asked. He realised to his dismay that there was hardly anyone in the gathering who had read any of his works recently. The Punjab Government honoured Narula with Shiromani Sahitkar award and some other organisations also saluted his talent by honouring him. Despite his high literary merit and place in the panel of selectors of the National Sahitya Akademi in Delhi for a full term, he was not given the Akademi Award. Ironically, not only his juniors but the Akademi also found some of his students worthy of this award. `A0 But awards or no awards, Surinder Singh Naraula was an unbeatable spirit set in a frail physique who not only did his D. Litt on India-Pakistan relations from Chicago University at the age of 76 but also took up the monumental task of translating Sri Guru Granth Sahib into English. Unfortunately, his illness did not allow him to finish it. It is a well-established fact that to remembered after death, a writer needs neither awards nor requires to churn out dozens of books by recycling his ideas, but he needs to bring out just one book with his very own magical touch.`A0And luckily the late Surinder Singh Narula succeeded in creating that book, Payo Puttar.
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