Mai Tenu Fir Milangi

 An Ode to Amrita Pritam Ji

Tomorrow will be Amrita Pritam Ji's 105th birth anniversary. So, a perfect ocassion to celebrate her bold and unconventional life and writing. Who is Amrita? A quick google search will give a lot facts about her. But the point of writing this blog is , who is Amrita for Asmita? Well, thats not it. She was the first female recipient of Sahitya Akademi puruskar, but her genius truly lies in the life she lived. There is a  simplicity as well as depth in her writing. 

Everytime we talk about partition literature, there is a special mention of her iconic poem, "Ajj akhan waris shah nu".

Every year on partition remembrance day on 14th august you will find someone reciting this poem.I came across this poem much later. The first poem that I read by her was Mai tenu fir milangi. This was how I got introduced to Amrita ji. I loved this poem so much that despite being a non punjabi speaker I often recite this poem. Some might have heard too! The beauty of this simple poem is beyond measures. This was written towards the end of her life. She dedicated it to Inderjeet Imroz. Now who was Imroz?

Whenever we talk about Amrita, there will be a mention of Imroz. They lived together for more than forty years together without marriage. This would might make you question her. But, both of them never felt the need of labelling things between them.There were no promises but there was this absolute bliss of eachother's presence. After reading Uma Trilok ji's take on their lives I got to know a lot. This book provided a lot of information about their years together. It was a bond of true love and companionship. Their lives were always questioned by their contemporaries. And specially if it was a woman like her who was much ahead of her time, open about her feelings and ideas through her literature and life decisions as well.

The love story of Amrita and Imroz is quite intriguing. Imroz was a painter, an artist. He celebrated Amrita in his works. And he often talked about how her ideas shaped his paintings. It was also an intellectual bond between the two. 

Her autobiography Raseedi ticket is also a bit controversial.Her life decisions were a bit unconventional considering the time when woman were seen in a narrow perspective. But the fact that she lived through those challenges cannot be ignored. Being married at a young age, going through a bad marriage then coming to India. She was also associated with very famous lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi. 

Amrita and Sahir

She loved him deeply but there were religious differences. Imroz came much later in her life but even she admitted that Imroz loved her unconditionally. There are several passages in uma trilok ji's book which talk about how profound imroz's thoughts were.

last year during a poetry workshop in my college, we were asked to write poem about hypothetical meeting with any of our favourite poet. I could only think of her. As I could only remember, 'Mai tenu fir milangi, kitthe kis tarah pata nhi". Rajiv Chowk has been a place of various good and bad memories for me and I could only think of calling her there!

Next year, I'll write more about her once I get my copy of Raseedi ticket!

Asmita

Aug'24