This Above all
Gurdwaras and trees 
KHUSHWANT SINGH

As I come closer to the end of my days, I am experiencing a strange phenomenon. I recall bawdy songs I used to sing in my childhood. Some line, usually the first, then some of the following, at times the whole song. I wonder if this happens to others who, like me, are on their last legs. A few days ago, as I was dozing off to sleep, a song buried deep in my memory started going round in my head:

Toomba vajda ee-na taar bina;

There are 58 gurdwaras in India and Pakistan which are named after the trees that grow there
There are 58 gurdwaras in India and Pakistan which are named after the trees that grow there

Rehndi na yaar bina
(Without the string, a banjo does not play; without her lover, she does not stay). There were many really bawdy songs connected with a mythical baba who was both mean and sex obsessed. I recalled lines which dealt with both characteristics:

Naaley baba raat reh gaya;
Naaley dey gaya chavani khotee
(Not only did baba spend the whole night with me, he also gave me a four-anna coin which turned out to be fake). I would like to know if this happens to others of my age, or is it because I have a dirty mind?

Tree worship

Damanbir Singh Jaspal has produced a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, Tryst With Trees: Punjab’s Sacred Heritage
Damanbir Singh Jaspal has produced a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, Tryst With Trees: Punjab’s Sacred Heritage

About three years ago, the apex body controlling historical
gurdwaras announced that, thereafter, instead of giving worshippers the traditional karah parshad (sanctified halva), they should give them saplings of trees. I was overjoyed. I do not know if this is still being done. We are a people full of sudden enthusiasm, which peters out after a while.

Now we have a genuine tree worshipper in Damanbir Singh Jaspal (IAS). He has produced a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, Tryst With Trees: Punjab’s Sacred Heritage (Thompson Press), showing that as many as 58 gurdwaras in India and Pakistan are named after the trees that grow there. It is being made into a documentary film by a Pakistani filmmaker Farooq Beg.

It occurs to me that every gurdwara should have a reading room, a lending library as well as a primary school for children. Our top priority should be 100 per cent literacy with preservation of our heritage. Jaspal’s book is not priced because it is priceless. It can be got from Thompson Press, Delhi, or the author dsjaspal@sify.com.

 

In praise of the woman

Whatever you give a`A0woman;

She will give back greater returns;

If you give her sperm;

She’ll give you a baby;

If you give her a house;

She’ll give you a home;

If you give her groceries;

She’ll give you a meal;

If you give her a smile;

She’ll give you her heart;

She multiplies and enlarges;

What is given to her;

So, if you give her any`A0crap;

Be ready to receive a`A0tonne of ship.

(Contributed by Col. Viney Naroola, New Delhi)


Songs of matrimony

Worried about the marriage of the children, the wife rebuked the husband: "The matrimonial alliances of our son are not materialising because you named him Munna in the childhood and never allowed to change the same. Now everyone considers that my doctor son is Munna Bhai, not the genuine qualified one."

The husband reacted: "Did I say to name the daughter as Munni? Now no one even replies to matrimonial correspondence since the song Munni badnaam hui became talk of the town." "And who the hell suggested to name your mother as Sheela?" quipped the wife. "Now whenever my 70-year-old sasu ji goes to temple, the boys sing Sheela ki jawani`85"

(Contributed by Madan Gupta Spatu, Chandigarh)



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