Punjabi Antenna
Hunt for perfect Punjaban
Randeep Wadehra

THE talk show Face to Face (PTC News) interviews noted Punjabi intellectuals. This time it was the Sahitya Akademi Award winner and much translated as well as celebrated critic, poet and writer Dr Satinder Singh Noor. Listening to him was quite an enlightening experience. When asked about the predicted extinction of Punjabi language, he was visibly stirred—the show’s host had alluded to a report that includes Punjabi among those languages in the world that face extinction.

While calling the report a part of political intrigue by international forces, he did admit that the attitude of Punjabis would prove decisive in deciding the language’s fate. He bemoaned the average Punjabi’s tendency to take pride in conversing in English even if it is pockmarked with bad pronunciation and poor syntax.

He also did not appear happy with Punjabi’s evolution in the urbanised, post-industrial milieu. However, in an earlier episode of the show, Charan Das Sidhu, a noted playwright, had seen nothing wrong in the language coming under western influence. In fact he has written quite a few plays that take inspiration from Shakespeare. A lively but potentially polemical debate? Let it carry on for the sake of Punjabi culture’s health.

Punjabi channels have developed a fetish for ‘Miss Punjabi’ contests. Zee Punjabi and ETC Punjabi have been conducting such contests for quite a few years now. From what one gathers, the show has not exactly triggered off a fashion movement or spawned grooming culture in the region. Whatever be the motives behind organising such shows, developing the local lasses’ all-round personality is certainly not one of them.

If the idea is to discover a beauty who is steeped in the traditional way of life (using chakki, chopping saag with a daatti etc), or is able to mouth words that used to be part of the rustic lingo long ago, then one must term it a futile retro-effort. Punjabiat is not a stagnant concept but a dynamic way of life that has not hesitated while interacting with other cultures. To place it in the straitjacket of defunct mindset would be both foolish and self-destructive.

Today’s Miss Punjabi should have a post-modern mindset—a happy and healthy amalgam of traditional and avant-garde lifestyles. Will Miss PTC News Punjabi do the trick? Let us wait and watch.

Talking of Punjabi culture, Doordarshan, Jalandhar, has a rich repertoire of folk songs and dances, Sufi music and a host of other forms, including ghazals and qawwalis. One can be treated to the mystical notes sung by Wadali brothers, or enchanted by the joyfully vigorous rendering of the traditional Jago, or transported to the world of wistful romanticism, courtesy Jagjit Singh and his ensemble. Oh yes, all-time favourites like Hans Raj Hans, Bindrakhiya, Gurdas and Harbhajan Mann, too, can be watched belting out evergreen numbers to the delight of their fans.

While Bindrakhiya is no more, Hans has settled for stage performances after a dalliance with filmdom. Moreover, the Manns have gone on to score big on the big screen. So far, DDJ and other Punjabi channels have not been able to come up with singers of similar glam-quotient. Even the razzmatazz of all sorts of music award functions has failed to unearth a genuine singing star. Pity.