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You have his word

Almost every Indian speaks three languages on an average and the life revolves around five or six if not more, and it takes one Gulzar to make the most of this typical trait found nowhere else in the world.

You have his word

Gulzar interacting with students at Panjab University on Wednesday. Tribune photo: S Chandan



Mona

Almost every Indian speaks three languages on an average and the life revolves around five or six if not more, and it takes one Gulzar to make the most of this typical trait found nowhere else in the world.

Having translated some 272 shayars from different regional languages, this author, poet and filmmaker feels strongly about developing Hindi as the link language across the length and breadth of the country rather than English. And that, he fears, would probably take another 100 years to assimilate our strong cultural influences.

Languages, life, literature, cinema, Partition, religion flitted in and out of conversational frames as the eminent lyricist, clad in crisp white kurta pajama and not to be missed golden jutties, took out time to interact with the alumni, faculty and students of the Panjab University. Some reflections:

The man, whose words have given us countless memorable and hit songs, right from Mera gora ang leyi lo to Chaiyya chaiyya to fit every mood and situation, made it clear that it was not a day to talk about films. However, he did assert in a cross reference that it’s time cinema developed its own literature.

“So many variants of Devdas, tragedy of a man and story of two women – Paro, who turns a woman overnight marrying a man much older than her and Chandramukhi, who turns from a woman into a girl in love! Are all these versions Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s? Cinema has matured enough to be able to make its own writings.”

Literature sure is one area that’s close to his heart and it pains him that it’s only in Bengali, Marathi and Malyalam that one can find good children’s literature. While in Hindi all children books are geared towards the epics, Punjabi has zero and Urdu below zero contribution towards children’s books. He stresses on the need for writers who can target different age groups as it’s way more challenging to talk to children in their own language which is different at different levels, elucidating it by reading one his Tagore’s translations.

Someone points out how social media has killed books and Gulzar disagrees. Publication is on the rise and he insists, “One must write. If your writing has weight, it will find a way to reach the readers; if one has a story, one must say it.”

While many in his age bracket criticise the young, this octogenarian sees great hope in them. He is happy that his 6-year-old grandson can fix his phone while downloading a game and playing it simultaneously. “My total hope is this young generation...Main daud daud ke kadam kar milata hoon/ Ye zindagi kitni tez chalti hai.”

All for accepting the past and moving on, he cannot belie the misery of Partition or the way it actually panned out; hope is the only answer according to him. He quotes a Pakistani shayar, “Ummed ki kiran ke siva kuch aur nahi aas/ Is ghar ki roshni ka yehi intzam hai.”

The master writer leaves everyone in the jam-packed auditorium asking for more...

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