Dear All
Paash was born on the 9th of September, 1950 at Talwndi Salem,Tehsil Nakodar in the District of Jallandhar, Punjab. His real name was Avtar Singh Sandhu. At the time of his birth, his father, S.Sohan Singh Sandhu was serving in the signal core of the Indian Army. Avtar,later renamed himself-'Paash'. His mother was his best and nicest friend. Although Passh could not manage to get considerable formal higher education, yet he was a well-read poet. He was a man of letters,a self-made person and a self-respecting genius. He wrote his first poem at the age of 15 in 1967 and it was published the same year in a magazine of Jallandhar.He also opened a small school at 'Uggi' near his own village. He was peon,watchman and headmaster of the school all in one. During Naxalite Movement,Paash was arrested under a false charge of murder,in 1970, and blind torture was perpeterated on him. His Jail poems speak volumes about this inhuman treatment. Again, on October 10, 1972, he was arrested from Nakodar alongwith a few other activists. In 1974, again, Paash was put behind the bars during the Railway Strike. Paash married Rajinder Kaur in June 1978. On January 19, 1982, Paash became the father of a daughter whom he named 'WINKLE'. In July,1986, he reached America via England.There, he joined 'Anti-47 Front and edited this paper, for some time. In January, 1988, he returned from America to India. On March 23, 1988, he was murdered along with his friend Sh. Hans Raj beside the tube-well, where, unfortunately, he was having his last bath, in his village-farm by Militant Activists. Paash is no longer a mere name. He has become a symbol of smouldering rebellion against the State. His poetry spits fire with a scorching glow. He gave utterance to his rebellious ideology in his poems and thoughts. He fought and wrote against the State, virtually walking shoulder to shoulder with the caravans of the struggling masses. His life-style, his thoughts and deeds can not be seen apart. Paash opines: "The act of living is the only thing which none else can perform in your stead." "Life is such an experiment for which you yourself have to become the laboratory." "Being a Marxist means applying the Marxist Theory to real life situations." "If poetry is not written in the interest of the masses, it must be written, at least, for self-interest. He who is not sincere to himself, can never produce literature which is just and sincere to the social strata or masses. "I believe that the tottering people can never pen down a living poem or story." "While writing, you should be truly devoted to your inner self." "An ideology thurst upon people by force of violence does not allow the psyche to evolve, it rather distorts the psyche. Such impluses are born of a distorted psyche only. Distorted psyches can not disseminate and evolve a healthy psyche." " I used to gauge worriedly the continuously decreasing level of curiosity in the village youths. All this preoccupations of mine was my Poetry, Life and Work." "At first, I fought the reactions of the surroundings at a sentimental level, which was full of mental anguish. Then I started fighting my body and mind at an intellectual level. As a first step to this fight , I shifted my residence to Jallandhar (6.9.1974)." "Before the advent of Revolutionary Movement in Punjabi Literarure,our writers, especially the new generation, had fallan a victim to obscurity. This obscurity also formed part of life itself. The Revolutionary Movement broke the ice and put the Rebellious Tradition in punjabi on the march." "Politeness is foreign to me. Well, there is a lot of depth and craftmanship in my life. I am proud of my life-style." Transaltion of his famous poem The Most Dangerous Most treacherous is not the robbery of hard earned wages Most horrible is not the torture by the police. Most dangerous is not the graft for the treason and greed. To be caught while asleep is surely bad surely bad is to be buried in silence But it is not most dangerous. To remain dumb and silent in the face of trickery Even when just, is definitely bad Surely bad is reading in the light of a firefly But it is not most dangerous Most dangerous is To be filled with dead peace Not to feel agony and bear it all, Leaving home for work And from work return home Most dangerous is the death of our dreams. Most dangerous is that watch Which run on your wrist But stand still for your eyes. Most dangerous is that eye Which sees all but remains frostlike, The eye that forgets to kiss the world with love, The eye lost in the blinding mist of the material world. That sinks the simple meaning of visible things And is lost in the meaning return of useless games. Most dangerous is the moon Which rises in the numb yard After each murder, but does not pierce your eyes like hot chilies. Most dangerous is the song which climbs the mourning wail In order to reach your ears And repeats the cough of an evil man At the door of the frightened people. Most dangerous is the night Falling in the sky of living souls, Extinguishing them all In which only owls shriek and jackals growl, And eternal darkness covers all the windows. Most heinous is the direction In which the sun of the soul light Pierces the east of your body. Most treacherous is not the robbery of hard earned wages. Most horrible is not the torture of police Most dangerous is not graft taken for greed and treason. -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and leads it back to war.” -- Maria Julia Hernandez www.otherindia.org www.binayaksen.net www.phm-india.org www.phmovement.org www.ifhhro.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movem...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
