The Revenue Stamp - Amrita Pritam

'The Revenue Stamp' is the translation of novelist, poet, essayist, Amrita Pritam's autobiography 'Rasidi Ticket' which was written in in Hindi. The translation has been done by Krishna Gorowara. It's written in a non-linear style, penning her memories poetically as they come, which makes it an intense read. It is interspersed with her poems which are equally intense and heavy. It is not a book that can be finished in a hurry and perhaps must be read multiple times to get the real gist of her thought. 

Born in 1919 to a school teacher mother and a writer-editor father, she lost her mother when she was eleven. The loneliness of growing up without her mother perhaps made her take to writing poetry at a young age and she published her first work of poems at 16. She wrote mainly in Punjabi and Hindi and wrote prolifically - over 100 books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction - by the time she was done. That is some body of work. 

Amrita Kaur was married off early to Pritam Singh and the marriage produced two children. The family moved back to India after the Partition from Lahore and she lived in Dehradun for a while. She divorced her husband in 1960 and lived alone. Her unrequited love for lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi is well documented in her works, including 'The Revenue Stamp'. Sahir and she seemed to share a relationship of silence and he never committed to her. When Sahir got into a relationship with Sudha Malhotra, Amrita moved in with her partner Inderjeet Imroz. They never married and lived an ideal life, respecting each other, their likes and dislikes. Amrita also talks of her friend Sajjad from Pakistan who also shared a beautiful platonic relationship with her. 

She worked in the AIR at Delhi and somehow got by, writing, facing constant criticism from her Punjabi writers and by dint of her sheer volume and quality kept amassing recognition and awards in India and abroad - Sahitya Academi Award for her poem 'Sunehade' (1956) (the first and only woman from Punjab to have got that award), Jnanpith Award in 1982 for 'Kagaz Te Canvas', the Padma Shri in 1969 and Padma Vibhushan in 2004. She was a contemporary of MS Subbulakshmi and since I read MS's bio recently, I felt they led very different lives yet similar. While Amrita spoke of her desire, expressed her love for Sahir, lived in with Imroaz, smoked an drank and lived the way she wanted, MS was fully cowed down by her husband Sadasivam. The one common factor for both was their dedication to their work and the volume of their work. Also, both shared a friendship with Indira Gandhi which is another interesting thing. Amrita was also part of the Progressive Writers Movement.

The constant criticism from her Punjabi writers apart, she visited many places abroad, made many friends and lived life on her terms. She recalls one famous poet telling her never to stop telling the truth - and she never stopped. Truth mattered for these writers and they stuck to it. 

Amrita would write lying in her bed they say, one of those quirks writers have (some wrote standing up, like Virginia Woolf, if I am not wrong). Some of her poetry I tried to understand but it was too intense. However I will write about one here.

'To cover the nakedness of meaning
I shrouded them in words -
The words have raped the meanings today
And are ashamed to look me in the eye.'

I will read her poetry again. Its a fascinating piece of work. One must read it to know how to write an auto bio, how to reveal one's true self with intense vignettes. I wanted to knwo why this name for the boo and it turns out that Khushwant Singh once generously told her that her life was so insignificant that she could write her story on the back of a revenue stamp and thus the name. Interestingly, this book has done very well - am not sure of any autobio by Khushwant Singh and how well it has fared.

Once again, thanks Vinod bhai for taking the trouble and getting me this book - among all the other books I have asked you.