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PUNJABI REVIEW
Pind Awazan Marda
Bedil has also made a similar attempt, but on a miniature scale in his own way, as the poets usually do—to say so much in so few a words. He has touched the village customs and festivals like Lohri, Baisakhi and Teean. The celebration of marriage is described in minute detail, right from the day the karahi (cauldron) is placed on bhathi (furnace) to prepare laddoos, how biradari and relatives join hands to knead laddoos, the custom of ‘neonda’ when biradari members individually offer cash to the father of the to-be-married daughter. Bedil recollects the custom of pattal, which is that if any daughter of bridegroom’s village is married in bride’s village, she is honoured by sending a pattal, a plate of sweets, and cash as shagun from bridegroom’s side. He discusses another custom, where the turbans and dhotis of the kurams (bride’s father and bridegroom’s father) are imprinted by each other with hands smeared in haldi/kesar, a symbol of developing intimacy between two families. How the newly-wed daughters and daughter-in-law become the central figures in dance during the celebration of teean, the hospitality extended to the son-in-law when he visits his in-laws after the marriage and the cutting of scintillating jokes by the bride’s friends are described in an interesting manner. Bedil has poetically described the joys of an Army man’s wife who suddenly receives a letter (chithi) from his husband, and how she stealthily goes to the village shopkeeper to get the chithi read out to her. Her joy knows no bounds when she learns that her ‘fauji’ is coming on leave next month. She kisses the chithi time and again and closets it to her chest. The poetical prowess of Bedil is laudable. The rhythm, flow and composition of words come naturally to him. He is at his lyrical best when he describes his encounter with a gypsy girl from the nomadic tribe of blacksmith, gaddianwali. The scenario portrayed in the book has almost become a history. The book as such can become a treasure of memories for the Gen-Next to amuse over as how their forefathers enjoyed village life. It would have been a good idea, if the book had been titled as Pind Wajan Marda, instead of Pind Awazan Marda.
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THIS
book by Punjabi poet Bachan Bedil contains anthropological and
ethnological impressions of his own village in verse. One of the first
books on village life, Mera Pind, was written by Giani Gurdit
Singh in 1961. A virtual anatomy of village life, Mera Pind now
is in its 8th edition, which speaks of its becoming a legendary in its
own right.