Rooted in the rural ethos, Joga remained true to Leftist ideology

Somehow there are two Punjabi writers living in Chandigarh whose names come to my mind together are Mohan Bhandari, the fiction writer an...

Somehow there are two Punjabi writers living in Chandigarh whose names come to my mind together are Mohan Bhandari, the fiction writer and Joga Singh, the poet. It is not just so that the two belonged to Malwa region, were very close friends, ace boozards and rooted in the rural ethos. My reason is more personal. I happened to interview them for by column called From the Front Row’ in the Chandigarh edition of The Indian Express some 20 years ago.

In fact, giving me the address of his home, Mrs. Bhandari told me to go there before sunset or he would be too far gone out with Bachchus to give me an interview. A couple of weeks ago, Bhandari was in news for having won the Sahitya Akademi award for his anthology of short stories called, Moon di Akh. I got this news while I was visiting Chandigarh. A happy get-together followed in the Coffee House. Bhandari talked of his writings, his friends, his times. There was mention of late Kumar Vikal, Bhushan and Surjit Patar. No mention came of Joga Singh.

This is how it was for the past few years. Alcohol had taken its toll well and proper and the bright poet of Barnala seemed to have passed into oblivion. And today news came from home of his death. No it was not cirosis of the liver but cancer of the mouth. Even before one thought of the writings of Joga Singh, one though of something that had been written on him. Amrita Pritam had written an article called Joga Singh da Chabara describing his offbeat lifestyle and writings when he was living in Patiala.

Joga Singh penned four anthologies of poetry. These were Kark Kalje Mahe, Hun Oh Waqt Nahi Rahe, Apni Mitti and Alvida-Khushamdid. He is best remembered for his pen portraits written on the people of his village. These are prose poems of archetypes which reflect mood of the times and its tragedies. Partition was a theme he touched upon with emotion and he remained a firm believer if the progressive movement in literature. It was the gap between the believed and the real that was filled up with alcohol.Recalling a friend and a contemporary writer, Bhandari said, “He was a man of sharp intellect and remained true to the Leftist ideology he embraced as a student".