Amrita Pritam (31.08.1919-31.10.2005), who was the first Punjabi poetess to win Gyanpeeth award for her poetry anthology 'Kagaz te Canvas', is also the recipient of various national and international awards for her poems and poetry anthologies. Talking about her literary contribution, she was not only bestowed with a degree of D.Litt. but also given the membership of Rajya Sabha in May 1986. In 1956, she was felicitated by the Bharti Sahit Academy Delhi for her poetic collection 'Sunehrh'. In the year 1958, she was honoured with the title of 'Shiromani Punjabi Sahityakar' by the Language Department of Punjab. She was awarded 'Padam Shree' by the Government of India in 1969 and 'Padam Vibhushan' in 2004. The 'Millennium Award' was bestowed upon her by the Delhi government, while the Punjab government honoured her with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and a cash of fifteen lakh rupees, recognizing her literary contributions. She has successfully experimented with her writing in various genres of literature like novel, poetry, editing literature, speeches, historical literature and research, prose, interview, character sketch, memoirs, folk tales, children's literature and translation. She has to her credit around 150 original and translated books. Amrita Pritam was also the editor of the literary monthly 'Naagmani' for a long time. Apart from writing in Punjabi, she has also penned down books in Hindi and English. Two of her novels were adapted for films and many television serials have been based on her short stories and novels. Her books have been translated into Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Bangla, Sindhi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish, Albanian, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Serbo-Croatian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Danish etc. Two telefilms have been made on the life and works of Amrita Pritam, 'Sachcho Sach Das Ve Jogi' and 'Aakhan Waris Shah Nu'. From amongst the novels of Amrita Pritam, 'Doctor Dev', 'Pinjar' and 'Hardit Singh Da Zindaginama' became so popular that they are talked about even today. Special efforts are being made to publish a compilation of selected stories from various collections of this multi-faceted personality, Amrita Pritam, by National Book Trust, India.
Amrita Pritam is a woman, a poet, a creator and an artist. She knows the nuances of depicting emotions. The conversational style is the achievement of her short stories. She has the expertise of using words most appropriately. Amrita Pritam is actually a poetess. She herself admits that, "It was my imagination or experience that made me write stories, while I was writing only poetry." (26 vare Baad-1943)
The central character of all her stories is a woman. She weaves her story around a woman of every class, age, category and profession. These women are independent, dedicated to their families but buckle up under societal pressure. They are economically weak, victims and helpless. They fend for themselves and many a times resign to their fates when being tortured by the conditions so created. All these women have a soft corner for each other but are at times each other's enemies and unhappy with each other. They seem satisfied tied to their husbands, fondling their sons-daughters, celebrating their brother's marriage. In this way, while presenting before us various facets of women empowerment, Amrita Pritam gives birth to another level of Punjabi short story.
All her stories strongly present the viewpoint of a woman. One can observe this in 'Shah di Kanjri' (The Shah's Harlot), 'Murabbean Wali' (The Landlady), 'Teesri Aurat' (The Third Woman), 'Bhabhi Morni', 'Latiya di Chhokri' (Girl from Village Latiya), 'Guliana da Khat' (Guliana's Letter), 'Chhiti Dhoti Zari da Kafan' (White Dhoti, Silken Shroud), Murki urf Balaki' (Murki alias Balaki), 'Oh Aurat' (That Woman), 'Chhamak Chhalo', 'Monalisa Number Do' (Monalisa number two), 'Kokli', 'Punje Kunwarian' (Five Unmarrried Women) and many other titles that have in common a female character as the protagonist.
The women characters in stories like 'Shah di Kanjri' (The Shah's Harlot), Murabbean Wali' (The Landlady), 'Ik Hauka' (A Sigh), 'Ik Haneri Guthh' (A Dark Corner), 'Kameen' (Labourer), 'Ram ji de Khooh di Boki'(Leather Bucket of Ram ji's Well), 'Chitti Dhoti Zari da Kafan' (White Dhoti, Silken Shroud) etc. are the owners of a well-to-do household. But even if money can buy all the facilities of life, can it give peace to the mind and heart's contentment too? Inspite of being lucky enough to enjoy all the luxuries of life, these women suffer and stay the same for their whole life. Moreover, belonging to a rich family does not allow them to vent their grief and they are left boiling at heart. Although 'Murabbean wali' enjoys a good financial status both on the side of her parents as well as her in-laws, yet because of her husband being vicious, she undergoes pain and struggles with herself. Even her daughter is met with the same fate. While trying to keep the honour of their father intact, she begins to stand in guard of their husband. But later on, Murabbean wali's granddaughter Sahiba chooses a boy from another caste, who is her classmate, saying that she loves him. Also, she has risen above class distinctions because of education. While on the one hand, Sahiba's paternal cousins are all ready to kill her to save the family honour, 'Murabbean wali' takes a bold decision and sides with her granddaughter saying that if she loves him, she must invite him here. She is even ready to get Sahiba married to him because finally she doesn't want her granddaughter to suffer the way her daughter did. Sardarni Raj Kaur ('murabbean wali') tells her granddaughter, "Listen girl! If you have made up your mind, then have your say otherwise you'll be left simmering like the cowdung cakes on fire for the rest of your life." This is indicative of change.
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