Although he taught me for two years (1978-1980) after I had enrolled to do M.A. in Hindi literature at the Centre of Indian Languages in Jawaharlal Nehru University, I always knew Kedarnath Singh as a very affectionate friend despite the considerable age gap of 20 years between us. Kedarnath Singh, who breathed his last on Monday evening at the age of 84, had joined JNU as an Associate Professor in 1976 and I came to know him through a mutual friend Vijay Mohan Singh, a wonderful short story writer and critic who passed away three years ago. It so happened that during the Emergency in 1976, I had to leave Delhi and join Himachal Pradesh University where Vijay Mohan Singh was teaching at the Hindi Department. Soon after my joining, the department organised a seminar that concluded with a session of poetry recitation. Kedarnath Singh and Raghuvir Sahay had come to participate in it. As Kedarnath Singh stayed with Vijay Mohan Singh for a few days, I spent a lot of time with him and we struck a friendship. Just around that time, two of my poems on the theme of mother had appeared in the prestigious literary journal Alochana (Criticism) edited by well-known Marxist critic Namwar Singh, and Kedarnath Singh had liked them.
When I look back, I realise that he was not very comfortable with my becoming a journalist and gradually moving away from writing poetry. During the past three decades, whenever we met, he would often tell me with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes: “I don’t want to meet Kuldeep Kumar-the-journalist. I want to meet that Kuldeep Kumar who wrote, “Baarish to kya, uskee baat bhi nahin. Tumne mujhe mor ke pair kyon diye maan?” (Leave alone rains, nobody even talks about them. Mother, why did you give me a peacock’s legs?).”
Kedarnath Singh receiving the Jnanpith Award from President Pranab Mukherjee
We used to call him “Ajatshatru”, one whose enemy was never born. And till the end of his life, Kedarnath Singh remained a man without enemy. This was possible because he himself did not bear any grudge or ill will towards anybody. I am yet to find a person about whom he ever made a harsh comment or a person who made a harsh comment about him. His warmth, accessibility and welcoming nature won everybody over. Littler wonder that he was one of the most popular and loved teachers and a universally admired poet. His readings in world poetry in general and Urdu poetry in particular were very extensive and when he taught Hindi poetry, he always kept the cultural, linguistic and literary contexts in mind and adopted an inclusive approach. Being an outstanding poet himself, he explained poetry in such a lucid and original manner that it became accessible to even the dumbest student. It was a treat to listen to him.
Kedarnath Singh was born on July 7, 1934 in a peasant family of Chakia village in Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh. His initial schooling took place in his village after which he shifted to Banaras. He did M. A. in Hindi literature at Banaras Hindu University where he wrote his M.A. dissertation on Kalpana aur Chhayavad (Imagination and Chhayavad) and Ph. D. Thesis on Adhunik Hindi Kavita Mein Bimbvidhan (Imagery in Modern Hindi Poetry). He began to write lyrics around 1952-53 and became familiar with modern poetic sensibility and aesthetic vision when he translated French poet Paul Elluard’s famous poem “Freedom” into Hindi. He drew the attention of Hindi literary world when eminent Hindi littérateur Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan ‘Agyeya’ included his poems in Teesara Saptak (Third Heptad). Kedarnath Singh always considered this as the most decisive turn in his poetic career. It may be mentioned that Jnanpith award winning poet Kunwar Narain too was one of the poets who were introduced by ‘Agyeya’ in this historic collection.
22dmc Akaal Mein Saaras
Deceptively simple
After this, there was no looking back for Kedarnath Singh. He published several collections of his poems of which Akaal Mein Saaras (Cranes in Drought) won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1989. However, Kumaran Asan award was the first national level award that came to him in 1980. Abhi, Bilkul Abhi (Now, Just Now), Baagh (Tiger) and Tolstoy aur Cycle (Tolstoy and Cycle) are some of his other notable poetry collections. In 2013, he became the tenth Hindi writer to be decorated with the prestigious Jnanpith award. His poetry was translated into many Indian and foreign languages.
Singh wrote in a deceptively simple style but he was a very conscious poet. His poems were so well structured that it was not possible to delete or replace a single word. He also had the rare ability to transform an ordinary thing or experience into something extraordinary, thus revealing many facets that remain hidden to an un-poetic eye. Baagh, one of his more celebrated poems, is an obvious example. It’s a chain of short poems where tiger makes an appearance in various ways and all the while the poet is very cautious to stop it from becoming a symbol for anything in particular. A fresh reading of Panchatantra stories and some inspiration from Hungarian poet János Pilinszky provided him the required building material for this poem.
Kedarnath Singh will always be remembered and read for his critically humane poetic vision, catholicity, compassion and generosity. Such human beings and poets are rare to come by.
(The writer is a senior literary critic)
