Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan Literature

Kapali ki Chhamot : Showing Reality and Paradoxes with Messages
(Review of Garhwali Poetry collection “Kapali ki Chhamot” by Dr Mahaveer Prasad Gairola )
Bhishma Kukreti
As the historian remember and praise Estonian poets Betti Alver, Uku Masing, Kersiti Marilaas, Bernard Kangro, Paul Viiding, for their desire to reach a deeper intellectual and emotional level, the Garhwali critics praise dr Mahaveer Prasad Gairola for his desire to reach intellectual level in his poetry. However, these Estonian poets were against ideological coercion and totalitarian concepts, Mahaveer Gairola was for spiritual communism or socialism but he always criticized the ‘difference between ideological saying and real action (implementation) by communists’ in his poems .
Dr Gairola was very prominent signature of Garhwali literature till his death . Dr Gairola was prose(essays, short stories and novel) maker , drama writer and illustrious poet of Garhwali language.
Kapali ki Chhamote is his fist poetry collection published in 1983 Ad. There are sixty one poems in this volume and Tiryali (dialect of Tihri Garhwal especially around old Tihri city ) dialect is the specialty of Dr Gairola . Though many critics as the ditor of Uttarakhand Khabar sar Vimal Negi criticized his uses of Tiryali , this author supported Dr Mahaveer Gairola for protecting regionalism in Garhwali literature. From this volume
the readers will find many Garhwali words , which Garhwalis forgotten due to love for Hindi language as the words Rinmoccha, Banjotta etc
As the title Kapali ki Chhamot ( means to take water from forehead ) suggests that the poet is unhappy about happening near him. The subject of his poems are related to common men and human beings but the narration is for intellectuals . This is one reasons that he was always sought for intellectual discussion about Garhwali language and literature but the convener seldom called him at Kavi Samelans.
From subject point of , each poem has different subject related to rural Garhwal and humanity. No corner of life in Garhwal is left by Dr Gairola. In simple words, there are sixty one subject narrated in Kapali ki Chhamot’ by dr Mahaveer Prasad Gairola
There is philosophy-spirituality , there is satire, there is flta criticism, there is sadness, there is laughter, there is rage, there is disgust in his poems and above all each poem tells a message directly or indirectly. The poet believes that the poem is not for the enjoying medium for the poet but it should be an instrument for the benifts of the society.
Most of the poems of Dr Gairola in this volume are Gady Shaili (prose oriented ) but are enjoyable.
Famous historian Captain Shur Veer Singh Panwar rightly states that the intellectuals will definitely, enjoy the poems of Dr Gairola . Famous Hindi literature critic Manohar Lal Uniyal ‘Shriman’ praised Dr Mahaveer Gairola for creating such marvelous pieces of poems in Garhwali language and stated that most of poems are having the same standard as the contemporary Hindi poems of eighties . The renowned Garhwali literature historian and critic Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna praised these poems for his philosophical and idealism narration in simplest words.

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India, 2010