SURYAKANT TRIPATHI
NIRALA..(1896-1961)
SURYAKANT TRIPATHI NIRALA ( 1896-1961 ) DIED SAD, POOR AND A LONELY MAN
( Photo... L to R ... Dharmveer Bharti , Surendra Tiwari, Nirala ji and Girija Kumar Mathur .. Mumbai January 1961 )
Nirala means “unique “. This word in itself is sufficient to draw an inquisitive mind towards his work . A quest to find what exactly is “unique “ In his work, made me to read Nirala. My suggestion to friends who do not know Hindi is to read him in English translation . He is a class apart from other Hindi poets of his age . A great contributor to the corpus of world literature .
Nirala lived a bohemian ,uncompromising and grossly disorganized personal life. He always needed money to live with dignity and peace even before recognition visited him and then thereafter as well. Never ever did he ask any person for financial help. Never ever did he care about his clothes or material comforts .He lived like a perfect Faqeer , always ready to help others at his own cost and neglect.
He was a poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer. He also drew many sketches.
To Nirala , we owe the creation of modern Hindi poetry and the development of the Chhayavaad, a movement wherein he was supported by pillars like Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant and Mahadevi Verma .
Chhayavaad or “ Neo -romanticism “ poetry was characterized by an enquiry of the self encrusted with themes of love and nature with an added touch of mysticism.
Nirala’s daughter Saroj passed away when she was just 18, an event that shattered him to the core. He went on to write Saroj Smriti, which marked his full maturing as a poet.
“Chhor kar pita ko prithvi par,
tu gayi swarg, kya yah vichaar
“jab pita karenge maarg paar
yah, aksham ati, tab main saksham
taarungi kar dustar tam"..
His poem Wah Todti Patthar, creates a heart-wrenching picture of a woman stone crusher.
“Wah todti patthar
Dekha maine Allahabad ke path par
Wah todti patthar
Chadh rahi thi dhoop
Garmiyon ke din
Diva ka tamtamata roop
Uthi jhulsaati hui loo
Rui jyon jalti hui bhoo
Gard chinagi chha gayi”
(Beside a road in Allahabad,
I saw her breaking stones.
The sun climbed the sky.
The height of summer.
Blinding heat, and the loo blowing hard,
Scorching everything in its path.
The earth under the feet
Like burning cotton wool,
The air filled with dust and sparks.
It was almost noon,
And she was still breaking stones.)
There is a deep resonance between Nirala’s poems and music. Nirala was very well aware of how the laya-taal works. Nirala is one of those rare poets whose poetry, composed in different ragas, is still being performed.He wrote ," var dhe var dhe var dhe ,hey veena-vadini var dhe" .
David Rubin has translated some of his popular poems into English and published them in a book titled ,"A SEASON ON THE EARTH: SELECTED POEMS OF NIRALA " .The paperback edition of the book is available for $4.00 in the US .I picked up this book from a foot path vendor in Upper Manhattan, New York .
Nirala was the first Hindi poet to use blank verse with flow.
A broken man after the death of his mother, wife and daughter , his entire literature is the product of his personality.
There is an incident relating to Nirala Ji worth mentioning over here.Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru was once invited by writers from Allahabad for a felicitation ceremony. He was garlanded and made to sit on the dais by the organizers . Pandit Ji suddenly saw a white haired man in Kurta and shabby Dhoti sitting in the first row. He recognized him immediately and rushed down from the dais and put his garland around the neck of this person . The person was none other than Nirala . And Pandit ji started his speech with a Sanskrit Shloka . Unusual for the listeners, as Pandit Ji was not well versed in Sanskrit. Here is the shloka :-
" Swadeshe Poojatay Raja
Vidhwaan Sarvatra Poojatay…"
( The king is worshipped in his own land ,
The laureate is worshipped everywhere )
At Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru’s intervention , Government of India paid a certain amount every month to Nirala for his medicines and maintenance. Poet Mahadevi Verma was entrusted with the task of passing on the money to Nirala tactfully as he always refused financial help from friends and well wishers.
And In an essay , Mahadevi Ji wrote this:-
" I am always worried about this brother of mine . He is totally detached and averse to all types of material possessions of life. If he receives money , he immediately distributes it to the needy people around . He has parted with his shirts , clothes , wrist watch , radio set , shoes and many other material possessions . Though I do not dare to discuss this issue with him, I believe he thinks that these material possessions of life obstruct his creative journey. He eats very little , sleeps less and shares every thing with poor and needy. What more traits do real saints possess?”
( Photo... L to R ... Dharmveer Bharti , Surendra Tiwari, Nirala ji and Girija Kumar Mathur .. Mumbai January 1961 )
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( First Day Cover in Memory of Nirala ji released by GOI in 1976 )Despite his colossal literary contributions, Nirala Ji was not conferred with any civilian or literary awards . It could be also be due to his rebellious nature and his avoidance of gifts , honours, financial help , awards and limelight .
It is believed that Nirala Ji suffered from schizophrenia during the last days of his life. In 1961, he died in a friend’s house at Daraganj localiy in Allahabad city .
"Dukh hi jeevan ki katha rahi
Kya kahuun aaj, jo nahin kahi !"
(The story of my life has been full of woes,
What shall I say now, that I haven’t said before ? )
(Avtar Mota)
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
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