For millions of artists and writers, the rechristened 27, Curzon Road, still remains the abobe of the Punjabi playwright Balwant Gargi. ‘‘What is this Gargi?’’ renowned Punjabi playwright Gursharan had once asked him. ‘‘I am a Garg bania from Bathinda but if I gave out my identity, who will buy my books?’’ Gargi said. Gursharan says he never found out if he said so in earnest or in jest.Born in 1916 in Punjab’s Malwa heartland, immortalised in Kakka Reta (Coarse sand, and not Golden Sand as once legendary poet Mohan Singh translated it), Gargi, who learnt how to write in Punjabi long after he was an established man of letters, strode the world of literature like a colossus. And with an uncanny ability, often stepped on fellow artistes’ toes, an art he perfected and chuckled about in private conversations. A playwright par excellence — Loha Kut, Dhooni Di Agg, Sultan Razia, Kanak Di Balli are just some of his works. Gargi took the literary world by storm with Kuari Teesi— a one-act play about the desires of a young lass to break through the shackles around her. Gargi will be remembered for spawning a new genre of profiles of literary figures. Nimm de Patte, Kaudian Wala Sapp, Surme Wali Akh, Huseen Chehre— one after the other he profiled the leading figures, including Amrita Pritam, Kartar Singh Duggal, Shiv Batalvi and many others.
