HAVING studied in a creative environment of Punjabi University Pataila, Ludhiana seemed to be a cultureless city to me. I had had stalwarts like Dr Dalip Kaur Tiwana, Prof Attar Singh, Prof Balwant Singh and other such big names as my teachers and thinkers like Gurbhagat, Sutinder Singh Noor, Harinder Mehboob, Ajmer Rode, Navtej Bharti for company. Ludhiana had little to offer when I came to the city in the early 1970s, to join Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) as a teacher of Punjabi.
A visit to PAU, however, changed my view. It was here that I met people like Dr M S Randhawa, Prof Mohan Singh and others. It was here that I met a thinker, a dreamer like Amarjit Grewal. It was here that I found verses of poetry etched upon rocks that lay around on the campus. I stayed on.
We created an oasis of culture in this industrial town where we would sit for hours under the huge pilkan trees dotting the campus, thinking, dreaming, churning out and creating new verses, new poetry and new ideas. We would then move to our small rooms that would soon turn into creative labs.
It will sound clichéd, but those were the days. Those were the days when Balwant Gargi was creating his theatrical magic here in the university. Those were the days when people like Balraj Pandit came here to stage plays. Those were the days when people would buy tickets to watch Harpal Tiwana’s plays. Those were the days when painters like Dev, Malkiat Singh, Ajaib Chitrakar and others displayed their work on the campus. Those were the days when Punjabi literature, language and culture were not considered subordinate to Hindi. Those were the days.
Posted By Staff Reporter
in Punjab News
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