toc
Shiv Kumar Batalvi(1936-1973)
Shiv Kumar Batalvi was an Indian poet, writer, and playwright of the Punjabi Language.
Shiv Kumar Batalvi was born on 23rd July 1936 in a Saraswat Brahmin Family in the village Bara Pind Lohtian, Shakargarh Tehsil, Sialkot District (Punjab province, Pakistan). His father Pandit Krishan Gopal was a village tehsildar and his mother Shanti Devi a housewife.
In 1947 his family moved to Batala, District-Gurdaspur where his father worked as a Patwari and young Shiv and received his primary education. He was a dreamy child of his parents, often vanishing for the duration of the day, to be found lying under trees by the riverbank close to the Mandir or Hindu temple outside the village, lost in a brown reverie.
He appears to have been fascinated by local renditions of the Hindu epic Ramayana, as well as wandering minstrel singers, snake charmers, and the like – which feature as metaphors in his poetry, giving it a uniquely rural flavor.
Education:
He completed his matriculation in 1953, from Panjab University, and enrolled in the F.Sc. program at Baring Union Christian College, Batala, though before completing his degree he moved to S.N. College, Qadian, where he joined the Arts program more suited to his persona, though he left that too in the second year. Thereafter he joined a school at Baijnath, Himachal Pradesh to do a diploma in Civil Engineering, here again, he left it in the middle. Next, he studied for some time at Govt. Ripudaman College, Nabha.
Personal Life:
He met a girl named Maina at a fair in Baijnath. When he went back to look for her in her hometown, he heard the news of her death and wrote his elegy, Maina. This episode was to prefigure numerous other partings that would serve as material to distill into poems. Perhaps the most celebrated such episode is his fascination for Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari's daughter who left for Venezuela and married someone else. When he heard of the birth of her first child, Shiv wrote 'Main ik shikra yaar banaya', perhaps his most famous love poem. It's said that when she had her second child, someone asked Shiv whether he would write another poem. Shiv replied, "Have I become responsible for her? Am I to write a poem on her every time she gives birth to a child?". The poem 'Main Ek shikra yaar banaya' is in the Punjabi Language, and the English translation of this poem is also equally beautiful. On 5 February 1967, he married, Aruna, a Brahmin girl from his own caste. She is from Kiri Mangyal, Gurdaspur district, and later the couple had two children, Meharban (1968) and Puja (1969).
Youngest recipient:
He is known for his romantic poetry. His poetry recitations, and singing of his own verse, made him and his work very popular amongst the masses. He become the youngest recipient of the SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD in 1967 for his epic poem(verse) play LOONA. Soon after his marriage, in 1968, he shifted to Chandigarh, where he joined the State Bank of India, as a professional. In the following years, bad health plagued him, though he continued to write prolifically.
Final days:
When Shiv returned from England in September 1972, his health had declined visibly. He was now bitterly complaining about the undue criticism of his poetry by progressive and leftist writers. He openly started talking about his disappointment at the unjustified condemnation of his poetry. [Gargi 2000 'Surme Walee Akhah' ]. Within a couple of months after his return from England, his health started sinking, never to recover again. He was in a dire financial predicament during those days and felt that most of his friends had deserted him in his time of need. His wife Arun somehow managed to get him admitted to a hospital in Sector 16 of Chandigarh where he received treatment for a few days. A couple of months later, he was admitted to a hospital in Amritsar, but left it on his own against the advice of his doctors. He didn't want to die in a hospital and simply walked out of the hospital and went to his family home in Batala. He was later shifted to the village of his in-laws, Kiri Mangial, a small village near the border with Pakistan. Shiv Kumar Batalvi died in Kiri Mangial during the early morning hours of 6 May 1973. {[After Shiv Kumar Batalvi returned from his England tour in 1972, he got affected by liver cirrhosis. His health issues put the family in a financial crisis. This was possibly the reason Shiv Kumar Batalvi along with his wife Aruna Batalvi moved to Shiv's maternal village, where he breathed his last.
Famous Poems:
- Peeran Da Paraga (1960)
- Lajwanti (1961)
- Aate Dian Chirian (1962)
- Mainu Vida Karo (1963)
- Birha Toon Sultan (1964)
- Dardmandan Deean Aaheen (1964)
- Loona (1965)
- Main Te Main (1970)
- Aarti (1971)
