Today (November 27) is the birth anniversary of renowned Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan whose magnum opus Madhushala catapulted him to a position in literature which is rare and unique.
Born on November 27, 1907 in Allahabad, Bachchanji began his career as a court reporter with The Pioneer in the 1930s. Around this time, he began participating in small literary gatherings. He used the symbol of Madhushala (tavern) as a vehicle to communicate to the world his responses to life in all its complexity.
An exquisite rubai describes the transition from the age of innocence to one of worldliness . "Ek samay santusht bahut thha paa main thhodi si hala, bhola sa thha mera saqi ,chhota sa mera pyaala/chhote se is jag ki mere swarg balaayen leta thha /vistrit jag mein hai gayi kho meri nanhi madhushala."
It is a happy coincidence that both The Pioneer as well as Dehradun played a role in the life of this great Hindi poet. In his autobiography In the Afternoon of Time, the poet describes a summer spent in the Doon valley. He tells us about a Doon which few of us would have seen or known. A pristine valley with a small population and abundant greenery.
Madhushala had been recently published. His first wife, Shyama, had succumbed to tuberculosis in the winter before this summer of 1937. He was at a loss as to how to go ahead in life with this burden of grief. It was then that his friend Brij Mohan Gupta, who was from Dehradun and studying at Allahabad, invited him to spend the summer holidays with him in the valley.
He lived with Brij Mohan and together, the two friends roamed around the valley, spending many evenings relaxing at the Parade Ground. "I would see the lights of Mussoorie in the far distance, a necklace of diamonds on the neck of a dusky lady reclining on a bed of sapphire".
Bachchan went up to Mussoorie to meet Professor Amar Nath Jha who had bought lynwood Cottage there. He had taught Bachchan when he was an undergraduate and was annoyed with him for leaving the university after the first year of MA (English). "Now that I was thinking of enrolling at university again, I thought I should seek his blessing," says Bachchan.
Bachchan also visited Kalsi in Dehradun district. "One morning, at the crack of dawn, I took a tonga to Kalsi where the Jumna comes down from the hills onto the plains, to see an Ashokan rock inscription. I sat leaning against the rock for a long time and when I set off back again, my mind was much lighter."
"I left Dehradun in a much better frame of mind than I had come in. The way ahead was not easy, but who wanted ease; and even if my heart still knew little composure, I felt ready for anything." Till 1981, Bachchanji visited Dehradun several times to attend poetic gatherings and call on his friends living here. It is very clear from his words that the Doon valley played a great role in settling his disturbed thoughts and had a calming effect on him which he remembered all his life.
Bachchan's poetry has always been the expression of his innermost feelings and experiences, mostly painful. A poem titled lahron ka Nimantran manifests the poet's desire to give himself up completely to an intense emotional experience crossing the confines of reality. "Teer par kaise rukun main, aaj lahron mein nimantran/Aaj apne swapn ko main sachh banana chahte hun/Door ki is kalpana ke paas jaana chahta hoon'' (How can I stand on the shore when the waves are so inviting. I want to give my dreams body and bones).