Amrita pritam famous works

Indian writer

Amrita Pritam
Pritam c.&#;
Born	Amrit Kaur ()31 August Gujranwala, Punjab Province, British India (now Punjab, Pakistan)
Died	31 October () (aged&#;86) Delhi, India
Occupation	Novelist, poet, essayist
Nationality	Indian
Period	–
Genre	poetry, prose, autobiography
Subject	Partition of India, Women, Dream
Literary movement	Romantic-Progressivism
Notable works	Pinjar (novel) Ajj aakhaan Waris Shah nu (poem) Suneray (poem)
Notable awards	Sahitya Akademi Award() Padma Shri() Bharatiya Jnanpith() Shatabdi Samman () Padma Vibhushan()
Spouse	Pritam Singh
Partner	Imroz
Children	2
In office 12 May &#;– 11 May
Constituency	Nominated

Amrita Pritam ([əm.mɾɪt̪ɑːpɾiːt̪əm]^ⓘ; 31 August &#;– 31 October ) was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi.^[1] A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Amrita pritam imroz This is an autobiography of Amrita Pritam. Not only does it capture her entire lifespan in its fold, but its warp and weft entails an entirely novel depiction on a spiritual plane. Viewed from various angles, it happens to be a distinctly adventurous autobiography, which like a serialised photographic frame keeps enhancing those images.

Her body of work comprised over books of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were all translated into several Indian and foreign languages.^[2][3]

Pritam is best remembered for her poignant poem, Ajj aakhaan Waris Shah nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah – "Ode to Waris Shah"), an elegy to the 18th-century Punjabi poet, and an expression of her anguish over massacres during the partition of British India.

As a novelist, her most noted work was Pinjar ("The Skeleton", ), in which she created her memorable character, Puro, an epitome of violence against women, loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to existential fate; the novel was made into an award-winning film, Pinjar ().^[4][5]

When British India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan in , she migrated from Lahore to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi.

Pritam's magnum opus, the long poem Sunehade, won her the Sahitya Akademi Award, making her the first and the only woman to have been given the award for a work in Punjabi.^[6] She received the Jnanpith Award, one of India's highest literary awards, in for Kagaz Te Canvas ("The Paper and the Canvas").

She was awarded the Padma Shri in , and the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in In that same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award given by the Sahitya Akademi (India's Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, awarded to the "immortals of literature" for lifetime achievement.^[7]

Biography

Background

Amrita Pritam was born as Amrit Kaur in in modern-day district of Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, in British India into a KhatriSikh family^[2][8] the only child of Raj Bibi, who was a school teacher, and Kartar Singh Hitkari, who was a poet, a scholar of the Braj Bhasha language, and the editor of a literary journal.^[9][10] Besides this, he was a pracharak&#;– a preacher of the Sikh faith.^[11] Amrita's mother died when she was eleven.

Free amrita pritam poems

Amrita pritam poems

Biography of amrita pritam

Soon after, she and her father moved to Lahore, where she lived till her migration to India in Confronting adult responsibilities and besieged by loneliness following her mother's death, she began to write at an early age. Her first anthology of poems, Amrit Lehran ("Immortal Waves") was published in , at age sixteen, the year she married Pritam Singh, an editor to whom she was engaged in early childhood, and changed her name from Amrit Kaur to Amrita Pritam.^[12] Half a dozen collections of poems followed between and ^{[citation needed]}

Though she began her journey as a romantic poet, she soon shifted gears,^[6] and became part of the Progressive Writers' Movement.

The effect was seen in her collection, Lok Peed ("People's Anguish", ), which openly criticised the war-torn economy after the Bengal famine of She was also involved in social work to a certain extent, and participated in such activities wholeheartedly after Independence, when social activist Guru Radha Kishan took the initiative to bring the first Janta Library in Delhi.

This was inaugurated by Balraj Sahni and Aruna Asaf Ali, and she contributed to the occasion. This study centre cum library is still running at Clock Tower, Delhi. She also worked at a radio station in Lahore for a while, before the partition of India.^[13]

M. S. Sathyu, the director of the partition movie Garam Hava (), paid a theatrical tribute to her through his performance 'Ek Thee Amrita'.^{[citation needed]}

Partition of India

One million people, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims died from communal violence that followed the partition of India in , and left Amrita Pritam a Punjabi refugee at age 28, when she left Lahore and moved to New Delhi.

Subsequently, in , while she was pregnant with her son, and traveling from Dehradun to Delhi, she expressed anguish on a piece of paper^[14] like the poem, "Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu" (I ask Waris Shah Today); this poem was to later immortalize her and become the most poignant reminder of the horrors of Partition.

The poem addressed to the Sufi poet Waris Shah, author of the tragic saga of Heer and Ranjah and with whom she shares her birthplace.^[15]

Amrita Pritam worked until in the Punjabi service of All India Radio, Delhi.

Amrita pritam novel Amrita Pritam. Follow. Something went wrong. Please try your request again later. OK. The Revenue Stamp: An Autobiography Paperback – August 3,

After her divorce in , her work became more feminist. Many of her stories and poems drew on the unhappy experience of her marriage. A number of her works have been translated into English, French, Danish, Japanese, Mandarin, and other languages from Punjabi and Urdu, including her autobiographical works Black Rose and Rasidi Ticket (Revenue Stamp).^{[citation needed]}

The first of Amrita Pritam's books to be filmed was Dharti Sagar te Sippiyan, as Kadambari (), followed by Unah Di Kahani, as Daaku (Dacoit, ), directed by Basu Bhattacharya.^[16] Her novel Pinjar (The Skeleton, ) narrates the story of partition riots along with the crisis of women who suffered during the times.

It was made into an award-winningHindi movie by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, because of its humanism: "Amritaji has portrayed the suffering of people of both the countries." Pinjar was shot in a border region of Rajasthan and Punjab.^{[citation needed]}

She edited Nagmani, a monthly literary magazine in Punjabi for several years, which she ran together with Imroz, for 33 years; though after Partition she wrote prolifically in Hindi as well.^[1][17] Later in life, she turned to Osho and wrote introductions for several books of Osho, including Ek Onkar Satnam,^[18] and also started writing on spiritual themes and dreams, producing works like Kaal Chetna ("Time Consciousness") and Agyat Ka Nimantran ("Call of the Unknown").^[19] She had also published autobiographies, titled, Kala Gulab ("Black Rose", ), Rasidi Ticket ("The Revenue Stamp", ), and Aksharon kay Saayee ("Shadows of Words").^[9][20]

Awards and honors

Amrita was the first recipient of Punjab Rattan Award conferred upon her by Punjab Chief Minister Capt.

Amarinder Singh. She was the first female recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in for Sunehadey (poetic diminutive of the Punjabi word "ਸੁਨੇਹੇ" (Sunehe), Messages), Amrita Pritam received the Bhartiya Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary award, in for Kagaj te Canvas (Paper and Canvas).^[21] She received the Padma Shri () and Padma Vibhushan (), India's second highest civilian award, and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, India's highest literary award, also in She received honorary degrees, from many universities including, Delhi University (), Jabalpur University () and Vishwa Bharati ().^[22]

She also received the international Vaptsarov Award from the Republic of Bulgaria () and Degree of Officer dens, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier) by the French Government ().^[1] She was nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha – Towards the end of her life, she was awarded by Pakistan's Punjabi Academy, to which she had remarked, Bade dino baad mere Maike ko meri Yaad aayi.. (My motherland has remembered me after a long time); and also Punjabi poets of Pakistan, sent her a chaddar, from the tombs of Waris Shah, and fellow Sufi mystic poets Bulle Shah and Sultan Bahu.^[2]

Personal life

In , Amrita married Pritam Singh, son of a hosiery merchant of Lahore's Anarkali bazaar.

They had two children together, a son and a daughter. She had an unrequited affection for poet Sahir Ludhianvi. The story of this love is depicted in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket (Revenue Stamp). When another woman, singer Sudha Malhotra came into Sahir's life, Amrita found solace in the companionship of the artist and writer Inderjeet Imroz.

She spent the last forty years of her life with Imroz, who also designed most of her book covers and made her the subject of his several paintings. Their life together is also the subject of a book, Amrita Imroz: A Love Story.^[23][24]

She died in her sleep on 31 October at the age of 86 in New Delhi, after a long illness.^[25] She was survived by her partner Imroz, daughter Kandlla, son Navraj Kwatra, daughter-in-law Alka, and her grandchildren, Kartik, Noor, Aman and Shilpi.

Free amrita pritam poems: This is an autobiography of Amrita Pritam. Not only does it capture her entire lifespan in its fold, but its warp and weft entails an entirely novel depiction on a spiritual plane. Viewed from various angles, it happens to be a distinctly adventurous autobiography, which like a serialised photographic frame keeps enhancing those images.

Navraj Kwatra was found murdered in his Borivali apartment in ^[26] Three men were accused of the murder^[27] but were acquitted due to lack of evidence.^[28]

Legacy

In , an audio album titled, 'Amrita recited by Gulzar' was released by noted lyricist Gulzar, with poems of Amrita Pritam recited by him.^[29][30] A film on her life is also in production.^[31] On 31 August , Google honoured her by commemorating her th birth anniversary with a Doodle.

The accompanying write up read as, "Today’s Doodle celebrates Amrita Pritam, one of history’s foremost female Punjabi writers, who 'dared to live the life she imagines.' Born in Gujranwala, British India, years ago today, Pritam published her first collection of verse at the age of "^[32][33]

Bibliography

Novels

• Pinjar
• Doctor Dev
• Kore Kagaz, Unchas Din
• Dharti, Sagar aur Seepian
• Rang ka Patta
• Dilli ki Galiyan
• Terahwan Suraj
• Yaatri
• Jilavatan ()
• Hardatt Ka Zindaginama

Autobiographies

• Black Rose ()
• Rasidi Ticket ()
• Shadows of Words ()

Short stories

• Kahaniyan jo Kahaniyan Nahi
• Kahaniyon ke Angan mein
• Stench of Kerosene

Poetry anthologies

• Amrit Lehran (Immortal Waves)()
• Jiunda Jiwan (The Exuberant Life) ()
• Trel Dhote Phul ()
• O Gitan Valia ()
• Badlam De Laali ()
• Sanjh de laali ()
• Lok Peera (The People's Anguish) ()
• Pathar Geetey (The Pebbles) ()
• Punjab Di Aawaaz ()
• Sunehade (Messages) () – Sahitya Akademi Award
• Ashoka Cheti ()
• Kasturi ()
• Nagmani ()
• Ik Si Anita ()
• Chak Nambar Chatti ()
• Uninja Din (49 Days) ()
• Kagaz Te Kanvas ()- Bhartiya Jnanpith
• Chuni Huyee Kavitayen
• Ek Baat

Literary journals

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Video links