Can an ordinary item of daily use transcend the boundaries of being just a means of cleaning? Can it be used as instrument for creating a creative synergy between lover and beloved beyond physical existence? Does its inherent evanescence give way to a time-defying riveting experience? The answer, a subtle ‘yes’ is articulated by a celebrated Punjabi poet, Bhupinder Preet, in his laconic poem, “Napkin”. The poem narrating a multi-sensory experience with a wily insights is carried by Samalochan – a reputed Hindi literary e-magazine in its recent posting.
The first e-magazine of Hindi carried Hindi rendering of Bhupinder’s eighteen Punjabi poems. Noted Hindi poet and critic, Arun Dev runs Samalochan on a blog based platform and it opens new vistas upon Hindi knowing readers as his magazine puts premium on publishing high quality literature being produced in several Indian and foreign languages. The ‘Samalochan’ that carried more than 1000 postings, astutely selected Bhupinder’s poems and Vipin Preet and Rustam translated them into chaste Hindi.
‘Napkin’ is used for cleaning hands and mouth and for Bhupinder it has a distinct and self-deprecating use and in final reckoning it emerges as a metaphor for catharsis.
Keeping memories alive
Seldom do people make napkin a medium of communication but the poet looks up it with reverent awe as for him it is a repository of possibilities. For poet, it is a life affirming entity that can keep those memories alive which are otherwise liable to whither in the larger flow of time. It evokes a new kind of belonging and affiliation. Bhupinder tries to create an interactive space by referring to napkin as the medium of communication. His creative dexterity places it into a new perspective which is set forth by creative meditation and it resembles with what Amratya Sen describes as “position dependence of observation”.
“Sitting in a gathering, I can write to you on a Napkin/ Noise is too boisterous/ No voice can go without conquering your memories/ Here every space is filled/ Only Napkin provides empty space and I wrote to you/ When I turned old and buzzing flies throng my fusty mouth/ Cover my body with Napkin”.
Empty space has an abiding significance for the poet as it manifests his distinct unease with status fuelled entitlements:
“Every day I create a new space inside me/ Then I put grain for birds, words for himself and leaves for the barren land/ Now I search through the filled space to find some unoccupied space so that I can live with contradictions by converting death into a sign of pause.”
Rationale for reticence
Every attempt to make a difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is essentially an act of self-destruction and our intent on communication is marked by equal vehemence on oppression and exploitation. For Bhupinder, ‘to speak is to fight’ is a lived reality and he fashions an enthralling idiom of reticence, a poetics of not foisting oneself on others.
“To reach the level of saying nothing, I put black ink on pages every day/ To make nothing to happen possible, I do a lot/ Between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ my soul (air) trembles/ Yesterday this trembling air killed a butterfly/ The soul of butterfly painfully oscillates between ‘being born’ and ‘not born’.”
Bhupinder’s short and astutely delivered poems are packed with unexpected insights and one can see a subtle humour in them amidst the weirdest situation. Many poems, such as “Balance”, “January”, “Unconsciousness”, “Memory”, “Rustam” and “Crocodile” articulate a multi-sensory vision which does not thrive on adolescent exuberance. Bhupinder’s densely structured poems do zero in on “ordinary happening” that uncannily reveal deeper underpinnings of intellectual opulence. Bhupinder deserve accolades for treating us to an easy- to-understand narrative that is intellectually stimulating and provides us with a fulfilling sense of perspective.
