Garhwali Literature, Culture , Art

Dheet : The poems of Realism and Experiencing
(Review of Garhwali poetry collection ‘Dheet; of Dr Narendra Gauniyal)
Bhishma Kukreti
Madan Duklan an eminent poet and critic of Garhwali poetry says that the work of Dr Narendra Gauniyal in Garhwali poetry ia equal to the works of Irish poets Spikes Milligan , C S Lewis, Seamus Heaney, Eamon Grennan , Evan Boland, Eileen Carney Hulme, James Joyce for making Irish poetry modern and taking the Irish poetry to the International level.
The works of Dr Narendra Gauniyal is the result of Dhad Poetry Movement in rural Garhwal and love for his motherland Garhwal. Gauniyal praises his motherland, a tender love. When the kind hearted poet experiences wrong happening from various agencies, groups or individuals dr Gauniyal expresses the pain through his modern styled poems.
Dr Narendra Gauniyal is born on 10 th December 1964 in Jamandhar of Gujud patti of Pauri Garhwal.
Narendra is medical practitioner by profession and he sings a kind of beauty that shows the realism of rural Garhwal and his own experiences about changing the human society from the angles of cultural, social, political human values . There is austere grace, simplicity in his poems.
There is pathos in his poems when Gauniyal narrates History of earth and says through his poem Itihas that the kings or army men did not create history but the workmen farmers who dig the lands for agriculture and no historian is interested in searching their hardship and eagerness for creating new human civilization .
Dheet poem is fantastic piece of poem of reality and philosophy and is about describing the ‘Desire ‘ (Dheet) . Pathran a symbolic poem wherein the poet shows the way normal human being forgets those who helped him the most and the helping hands are always in sacrificing mood. The readers will enjoy many other philosophical simple and easily understandable poems in this volume. The style, simple words used in such poems attract the readers and those poems are not just message providers flat poems but compel the readers for deep thinking on the subject of each poem.
Many poets described ‘the Mother’ but Dr Narendra describes the mother’s love and sacrifice differently and with modern style of verse creation.
Many poems of Dr Gauniyal are against the discriminations for female child, women found in the past society and even today, these discriminations persist in the modern society.
Many poems deal directly with life and Gauniyal uses reality as symbols. The poet very much feels the pain of changed environment due to unnecessary disturbances to ecology by human beings ( badlendo mausam ar adhkachi khichadi)
There many small poems in this volume and dr Narendra Gauniyal is perfect in narrating bigger aspect through lowest numbers of words. This quality of explaining big issue in smallest possible words makes Dr Narendra Gauniyal an important signature in Garhwali poetic field .
There are eighty poems of Dr Gauniyal in this volume and each poem has different aspect of life and different taste . The wording is very simple and understandable, The poet uses both type of symbols old and new as well. Many of his imagery poems are of class apart.
Most of his poem are of new school that is prose form but are full of tenderness and lyric taste
Poets Lalit Keshwan, Kanhayalal Dandriyal, Baulya did put the foundation of realism and experimentation in Garhwali poetry and poets as Dr Narendra Gauniyal are able to expand the same legacy .
Dheet (Poetry collection of Dr Narendra Gauniyal )
Year of publication: January 2003
Dhad Prakashan, Connaught Place, Dehradun, Uttarakhand , India

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti , March 2010, Mumbai, India