In the प्रस्तावना to her book, Shailja has gracefully laid out the simplest yet profoundest of prescriptions–--if you cherish a deep bond with Gulzar Saheb, the kind that is worn like a sacred तावीज़, आप इस किताब की तासीर को कुछ हद्द तक महसूस कर सकते हैं

 

 

कितना गहरा रिश्ता है गुलज़ार साहेब से यह तो पता नहीं, if Shailja has baptised him, the Moonsmith, I see myself as the tiniest speck of the same universe, that for light years had craved for her share of the Moon. उस रिश्ते के वास्ते से, I gather my guts and take a walk into this cosmos of mysteries.

 

holding within

the secrets of the cosmos

a falling star

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What pulled me into reading this book is my love for celestial wonders. The title intrigued me. Tossing its pages, my eyes caught some terms that lured me further. For the past few years, I have immersed myself in the haikai literature (Japanese literature) that dwells on brevity. To my delight, I find pieces from his poetry scattered across the ether. In between the excerpts, are Shailja’s annotations exactly like a seasoned haiku critic gives a commentary on our haiku. It felt home.

 

 

Orbiting the celebrated words----in celestial mechanics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved trajectory of an object, such as the path of a planet around a star or a natural satellite around a planet. Here, Shailja orbits around Gulzar Saheb’s verses holding deftly her scalpel and pen. Believe me, a surgery so extensive can be intimidating. Her words shine effortlessly, without getting eclipsed in the process.

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With a researcher's eye, I see it as a research paper with Gulzar Saheb's verses-----the source that nourishes her pen as she interprets them in her capacity as a surgeon and his protégé. As a poet I feel, she goes beyond the layers of the skin of his verses into the soul of his writing. I put her reflections in another haiku

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there must have been dark

from where they come -----

fennel sprouts

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She’s pulled by the musk of his words. She takes an exploratory approach and offers a fresh read into his already acclaimed verses. The themes she chooses to touch upon are the most obscure yet significant dimensions of ones existence-----khuda, sach, pyaar, maut, rishton ka taana baana and a blend of sensory perceptions-----poetic synesthesia that I have been researching on in the haikai literature these days.

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lonely tonight ...

the blue of a ghazal

deepens

 

In her journey, she pauses around his words, breathes and bathes in them as one takes a dip in the waters of the holy Ganges. She refers to him as a Sufi - poet who offers his own vulnerabilities हम सभी दर्द से पैदा हुए हैं, despair, hopes rather than lofty ideals on existence, who explores the complexity of the ब्रह्माण्ड and the बड़े मियां. What she calls a masterstroke is his writings on an indifferent खुदा and His apathy towards mankind with incredible ease. ‘बड़े इरेटिक लगते हो, कायनात में कैसे लोगों की सोहबत में रहते हो?

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In the same chapter, she offers a glimpse of the heightened awareness of his हैसियत in the cosmos. कितना छोटा मिरा कद है जैसे हर्फ़ से एक नुक्ता गिरा हो, captures his humility and his belief in the accidental and serendipitous occurrences in the Universe.

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Shailja unfolds another chapter, where Gulzar Saheb talks of love with a blend of mysticism and pragmatism. Love----the journey between the things we long for and the thing that torments us. She, from her orbit captures the ever evolving/mutating emotions of love as he illuminates ‘कोई भी इमोशन एक तरह से नहीं रह सकता', It evolves into another emotion.

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पनाह, the total surrender in love. ‘तुम्ही से जन्मूं तो शायद मुझे पनाह मिले, the most poignant and intimate of expressions I ever found from his nazm is deftly unraveled by him, in one of his conversations with Shailja, where he seeks to be born from the कोख of his beloved. What a marvel! As she travels further, she is enticed by the ताना बाना of this skillful जुलाहा. तेरे उतारे हुए दिन टंगे हैं लॉन में अब तक... allegorically he narrates the pangs of separation.

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In haikai literature we dwell on makoto----the truth. In the chapter आइना of truth she explores his quest for reality ‘ऐसा नहीं होता है, जो अपनी सोच है वही है बस... and zoka----the natural reality of the continuum of creation, वक़्त रहता नहीं कहीं टिक कर, आदत इस की भी आदमी सी है.

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Further, in the pages, resonates his voice where he contemplates about environment, soil and society. मोड़ पे देखा है वह बूढा- सा इक पेड़ कभी? मेरा वाकिफ है, बहुत सालों से में उसे जानता हूँ

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मैं जंगल से गुज़रता हूँ तो लगता है मेरे पुरखे खड़े हैं ....

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carrying a lifetime

in his womb

an old banyan

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spring zephyr

caressing the wounds

of a barren tree

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His verses can pierce a heart and heart of the matter with equal ease. मैं सिगरेट नहीं पीता मगर आने वाले से पूछ लेता हूँ कि 'माचिस' है ?

 

The last three chapters speak of poetic synesthesia, kintsugi and the ultimate freedom-----death, each one of them reveals a new facet of his profound poetic persona. Kintsugi-----the art of retaining precious scars, as I call it, again is a Japanese art. गुलज़ार साहिब इन्हें नज्मों के टाँके कहते हैं, the creative process that works as golden joinery.

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azure waters

fill the cracks of my poems

I heal

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as this लौकिक यात्रा ends, I thank Shailja for offering this poetic प्रयाग to the pilgrims of literature.

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मेरी यात्रा यहीं से आरम्भ होती है ....

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teji

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the haiku cited in the above article are my published works that have appeared in The Haiku Foundation, Usawa Literary Review, INNSAEI Journal.