Hindi Poetry by Gadhmaunis -1

Hindi Poetry by Gadhmaunis -1
Safedi Men Chhupa Kala: A poetry collection about common man
Commentary by Nida Fazali
Translation by Bhishma Kukreti

Whenever Hari Mridul Pandey meets me I find him agile and energetic but at the same time, a seriousness covers his swiftness and inside power . I was not knowing how come a shyness and outgoing personality can live together. When I started reading his Hindi poetry collection ‘ Safedi men Kala’ (blackness in whiteness) created by Hari Mridul Pandey , I understood very well that his sensitivity towards common man tends him to be serious and leaving agility behind. The name of collection is itself that he is keeping agility and soberness together. Bhartiya Patrakar Vikash Parishad awarded him by Himanshu Rai Purushkar for his film journalism. Maharashtra Hindi Sahitya Academy honored him by Sant Namdev Purushkar for his poetry collection‘ Safedi men Kala. He is also awarded for his this collection as Hemant Smriti Purushkar by a socio-literature organization. I am not a commentator on poetry . He still has a rural Kumauni innocence inside him and you will experience that rural virtuousness in his each verse of poetry too. I do commentary on Garhwali language poetry in Internet medium just to achieve one single goal and that is for making awareness for Garhwali literature and making my doodhboli (mother-tongue) a language as famous or acceptable as Hindi or English among my next generation scattered in various corners of India and abroad. Hari Mridul sent me his book for commentary but I feel that I shall do injustice not to Hari Pandey but to his poems, which are gems of Hindi literature. Therefore, I am offering you the commentary of Nadi Fazali an expert of poetry, Hari belongs to village Bagoti , Champaran district of Uttarakhand and is born in 1969. When Pandey was twenty three year old, he sent his poetries to Nagarjun- commonly called Nagarjun Baba and a famous name in Hindi critics. Nagarjun wrote for Hari‘s poetry

Dear Hari Mridul ! Your poems are fresh as morning buds and I am sure you will go far and farer ahead of your contemporaries ---Bhishma Kukreti).

Hari Mridul is a complete human being . Hari lives in metro (Mumbai) but still, he is innocent villager in Mumbai and not a metro lover. Mumbai is such a metro, which brings emptiness in its inhabitants , Mumbai forces the person to be uprooted from its native and nativity. However, Mumbai is helpless in snatching the love of Hari for his village Bagoti, his late grand ma and pa; hilly season , ghughati a type of pigeon of Kumaun, Kumauni folk songs and tales and his innocent but very effective way of communication. They all are his intimated ones and dwell every moment in his unpolluted soul. The famous English poet of early years of last century Auden ,once, said, “ There is a village within in all poet.” As Auden could see the disorder of a common man in London, Hari could experience the pain of common man in metro city . There are many similarities in experiencing the metro between Auden and Mridul. The following classic poems of Hari Mridul remind me the experiences of Auden for common men of London:

Ablation ki bhid
Na jane kahan se samne aa gayi
Aur dekhte hi dekhte main
(Shavashan)
Use heroine ka dukh dekhkar glycerin ki badi shishi
Yad ayee
Hero ki abrader dekhkar nakli bandook
(Spotboy)

His poems are witness that Hari has been experiencing countless anguish, disorder, of Mumbai metro as common man. That is why Pandey could express so well, with so simplicity the pain of young generation. In his poems, instead of modern intellectual complexity and motionlessness, we find an energetic and dynamic flow as in the flow of river. There is inquisitiveness, snooping, nosiness, prying or curiosity in Heri’s eyes as found in a child’s eyes. There is straightforwardness, effortlessness, ease, simplicity in his all poems as we may experience the ease in the fly of birds. You will experience the merging, , combination, blending, muddling up of words and thought in his modern styled poems as we experience in the construction, edifying, beatification, garnishing , frilling, , flow , gushing, streaming in folk-songs. We do not find this blend in other contemporary poets of Hari Mridul.

There is modern beautification Pandey’s poems but without any compromise with morality, his social responsibility. Pandey is expert of exclusive experimentations in his ghazals. In his many ghazals, he kept blank for the second part that readers has to fill the blank space line. This experimentation is marvelous piece for Hindi poetry. This space filling facility for readers compel the readers for expanding the poetry by them and not by the poet. Providing the space for expanding the imagination of readers is definitely, the specialty or expertise of Hari Mridul.

When there is space between the two verses , both the verses create the effect of friction between the two flint stones and the poem provide the energy to the readers as friction of two flint stones generate sparks .

Ched gine the parson chah
Aj mile chattis
Hatprabh hoon
Ek hi din kaise ho gaye tees

Now here is the space and a new verse starts , which has to meet the upper poetry and create the sparks in the mind of readers:

To pahni hai yah baniyan
Ris raha yahin se yah jeewan

After, ris raha jeewan , Hari left the gap to be filled by readers and readers has to expand the imagination .

His symbols, pictoriogram, icons, signs, hint, allusions are simple but very effective as we find Kabeer ‘s poetry.

The poet is from Kumauni the beautiful part of mid Himalaya. Kumaun is famous for its vibrancy, energy, natural beauty, human beauty, rivers, rivulets, wild animals, birds, and the simplicity of human being. Hari Mridul could never forget his village Bagot and he narrates his village Bagot in his many poems directly or indirectly. The shadow of Bagot is visible in his most of the poems. Mridul takes you on the roads of Mumbai but at the same time he will be taking the banner with him displaying his village Bagot, experiences of love given by his grand mother and grand father, the story tellers off Kumaun, ghughati of Gadhmaun,. This the expertise of Hari Mridul

This friction of his being in metro Mumbai and not forgetting his village, Kumaun, Himalayas and its flora and fauna makes a special blend and that makes Hari Mridul’s poems different than his contemporary poets. Pandey shows the pain of metro and struggle of common man through many symbols of hills of Kumaun.