Satire, wit and humour in Himalayan literature

Satire, wit and humour in Himalayan literature
Critical history of Garhwali literature

Mero Bwada : Sharp and Witty and Satirical poems by Puran Pant Pathik’
Bhishma Kukreti
The poetry lovers , literature historians, critics remember French poets Voltaire , Rute Beuf; German poet Wilhelm Busch; Italian poet Pietro Aritino, Salvator Rosa, Giambattista Marino ; English satirists Pope, Johnson, Donne, Dryden, Rochester; Sassoon, Owen Blunden Graves, Frost, Cummings, Robinson, Jeffers.Japanes poet Yokoi Kinkoku ; or Thomas Shadewell, John Dryden, , Caribbean poets as Johan Wilmot, Ralph Thomson , Grace Nicholas, Louise Bennett , John Agard for their creation of witty, satirical poems ; Garhwalis appreciate the satirical poems of Puran Pant ‘ Pathik’.
The poet , Garhwali film activist, editor and critic Madan Duklan said to this author that , Mero Bwada’ ( published in 1989) has a significant role in Garhwali poetry movement as the poetries in this volume were of satiric nature . Madan says that prior to Mero Bwada , Tidka by Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna and Hansada Pat Khilda phool by Lalit Keshwan were such type of collections.
In one interview with Bhishma Kukreti, Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna said that Garhwalis are hard workers because of the geographical nature and to balance the hurdles and strugl in day to day life, Garhwalis lean to bear those hardships by creating humorous and satirical proverbs, folk poems, folk songs, folk stories and sayings. However, in modern poetries Lalit Keshwan, Kanhya lal Dandriyal , Baulya, Netra Singh Aswal , Vinod Uniyal and Puran Pant are credited to initiate required importance to satirical poems in modern Garhwali literature.
Mero Bwada (my father’s elder brother) is one of the acclaimed collection of satirical poems in Garhwali before ninety.
By nature, Purn Pant is straight forward in saying the matter as he feels. This nature of sharp comments are clearly visible in his poems in Mero Bwada .
There are thirty six poems in this volume Mero Bwada and all poems are gem of satire. The poems shows the visible commentary on social, political, cultural, administrative , religious circles of contemporary Garhwal. Shiva kumar Badola says that these poems are of mixing realism, humour and satire and that blending expertise makes Puran Pant ‘Pathik’ different than other poets before nineties. Puran Pant provoke the readers and then activate the readers to think or do something about wrong happenings everywhere.
The form of poems is mostly prose like poems and there three satirical Ghazals too in this volume of poetries. The language is pure Garhwali and Pant tried to avoid unnecessarily mixing Hindi wordings in Garhwali poetry as Purn pant said that the poets should avoid Hindi in creating Garhwali literature .
Puran Pant Pathik will be remembered in Garhwali poetic field for creating realistic satire and portraying the wrong happenings with sharp wit, humour and irony. Bhishma Kukreti says that his poems of Mero Bwada are Bhibhdatya Kavita
Mero Bwada
Year of Publication -1989
Publisher Garhwal Sahity Parishad, Kanpur

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti , Mumbai, India, 2010