Dilapidated house of Punjabi poet Bawa Balwant still exists here

The family of noted Punjabi poetry and prose writer, Bawa Balwant, continues to live in a ramshackle ancestral house. Bawa Balwant was born at his ancestral village Neshta in August 1915 and died in New Delhi in 1972.

His collections Maha Nach (Grand Dance), Amar Geet (Immortal Songs), Jawala Mukhi (Volcano), Bandergah (Port) and Sugandh-Sameer (Fragrance and Aroma), stirred the thoughts of generations of Punjabi readers.

Bawa's relative Suraj Nath Sharma, 64, said he learnt from his late father Chander Shekhar Sharma, popularly known as Judge in the village, who was a cousin of Bawa Balwant, that his father had taught him Urdu, Hindi and a little bit of Persian script at home. A secular background with lyrical and spiritual poetic traditions was part of his creations.

He got the job of muneem (clerk) at a shop for Rs seven a month. His father had shifted to Amritsar and rented a house in Bazaar Kaserian, with its noisy surroundings as people were engaged in manually making and mending wares, for Rs two per month. It would disturb his poetic creations. That house was demolished long ago by its owner.

Poverty became an inseparable part of the family. Except for literary works, nothing belonging to the progressive poet Bawa Balwant is traceable today. They were three brothers. Two of them were chronic bachelors, while Bawa had married once. But his marriage was followed by a quick separation.

Being a representative of the progressive movement in Punjabi poetry, he was deeply influenced by poet Mohammad Iqbal. After initially composing poetry in Urdu, he later switched over to his mother tongue, Punjabi. Socialism was the guiding principle of his poetry and he was at his lyrical best in his love poems.

He said their family was once associated with Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala, a general in the Khalsa army of the legendary Sikh King, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After the martyrdom of Attariwala, Bawa's family was deprived of all feudal glory. They came back to their ancestral village Neshta and started petty medical practice.

After gaining formative education, he learnt about the ledger of transactions through the medium of Lande, a script which is used in recording financial transactions by business families in the north Indian in general and Punjab in particular.