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Journalism of Courage
Clad in a dhoti kurta, a chain of rudraksha beads around his neck, Rajendra Shah reclines on a folding chair in his son Kaivalya8217;s house in Central Mumbai.
Shah was in Mumbai last month to receive the prestigious Bharatiya Jnanpith Award 2001 conferred on him in 2003. But the 8216;saint-poet8217;, as he is popularly known, is his usual detached self. 8216;8216;I have no special feeling. It8217;s like any other moment in life.8217;8217;
The 91-year-old says he was misquoted, but clarifies, 8216;8216;I said I was not affected by the riots. A reporter likened it to Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. Did they expect me to go on the streets and fire-fight?
8220;For me,8217;8217; says Shah candidly, 8216;8216;the riots were just a phase of life in the city. I was not provoked to write or react.8217;8217;
Age may have affected his hearing, but Shah is sharp as ever as his son joins in to facilitate conversation. It8217;s ironic because the poet has always captured sights and sounds and his first collection in 1951, considered a pioneering effort in Gujarati poetry, was called Dhwani Sound.
With 25 collections of poetry and translations the latest came out in September, Shah8217;s most famous work is Aayushyanaa Avsheshe At the End of Life, a collection of five sonnets published in 1948. When Shah showed this collection to BK Thakur, an eminent Gujarati critic not known for his magnanimity, in 1951, the latter raved: 8216;8216;These sonnets are worth embroidering on a silky canvas.8217;8217;
Songs, ghazals, sonnets. Shah has experimented with almost all forms of poetry. Though he participated in the freedom struggle on Mahatma Gandhi8217;s call, his poems sang a different tune. 8216;8216;He doesn8217;t give a message. Like Tagore, he is engaged in self-discovery. He is a sadhak seeker,8217;8217; says Mumbai-based poet-critic Prabodh Parikh.
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LIFE LINES
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| 8226; Born on January 28, 1913 at Kapadvanj, Shah started writing poetry at 38 8226; BJP leader Jaywantiben Mehta was his neighbour at Bhuleshwar in Mumbai 8226; He observes maun vrat for a week every month to seek 8216;8216;solace8217;8217; |
His earlier poems talk of the joys and sorrows of the tribals of Thane, where he worked in the late 1940s. 8216;8216;I was an agent for a timber merchant and travelled extensively to the forests,8217;8217; Shah reminisces. 8216;8216;While commuting from my home in Bhuleshwar South Mumbai to Thane and back, I would write poetry.8217;8217;
He would have been just another grocer in Ahmedabad had he not moved to Mumbai in 1945. He founded a printing press in the 8217;50s where he held weekly sessions for young poets, and started Kavilok, the first Gujarati bimonthly about poets and poetry.
8216;8216;I had a childhood wish to retire at 56,8217;8217; Shah says. 8216;8216;I was struck with typhoid at exactly 56, and retired to native Kapadvanj, near Ahmedabad.8217;8217;
Retirement is hardly the right word. Kaivalya, a poet in his own right, quotes his own couplet: Jo guzar gaya main woh waqt hoon/Tere saath waqt chala kare I am the time gone by/But you are evergreen. 8216;8216;It applies to my dad,8217;8217; he says.
