Classic Punjabi ghazals’ collection to be out today
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, May 5
A collection of classic Punjabi ghazals written by eminent writers in the last 50 years would be released on Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s death anniversary tomorrow.
Two poets — Trilochan Lochi and Manjinder Dhanoa — have collected 83 poets’ 208 ghazals and published it into a book titled “Gulqand”.
Trilochan Lochi, a poet and the editor of the book, said: “Punjabi ghazals are equally popular to Urdu ghazals now. A large number of poets have written Punjabi ghazals but one can’t buy all books. We have collected popular ghazals of eminent writers and poets. It is a masterpiece of Punjabi ghazals.”
Poet Manjinder Singh Dhanoa, who has also edited the book, said: “Earlier, intellectuals used to say that the ghazal can be written only in Urdu. But Punjabi poets including Sah Muraad and Maula Bakash Kusta started writing ghazals in Punjabi. Eminent poet Professor Mohan Singh established himself as Punjabi ghazal writer. But Punjabi ghazal got popularity only after Shiv Kumar Batalvi started writing ghazals.”
“Gulqand” contains ghazals of Prof Mohan Singh, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Inderjeet Hasanpuri, Dr Jagtar, Dr Surjit Patar, Ajaib Chitarkar, Dr Randhir Singh Chand, Gurbhjana Gill, Ishwar Chitarkar, SS Misha, Principal Takhat Singh, Dr S Tarsem, Chanan Gobindpuri, Deepak Jaitoi, Jaswant Zafar, Dr Trilok Singh Anand and Sukhwinder Amrit.
The ghazals of contemporary poets such as Surjit Judge, Vijay Vivek, Jaswinder, Barjinder Chauhan, Kavinder Chand have also been included in the book.
Trilochan Lochi is a well-established poet with his book “Dil Darwaje” and audio CD “Sarver”, while Manjinder Dhanoa penned a book “Suram Silaian” last year. A research article on Ghazal writing: History and Contemporary by Jagwinder Jodhan is also added in the book for the introduction of ghazal to readers.
