Bits and Pieces – As I Please -17

Bits and Pieces – As I Please -17

SomParkash – MoS:It is to congratulate newly appointed MoS SomParkash in the new Council of Ministers of India in the wake of Verdict, 2019. It is a well deserved position by the son of the soil, a low profile but a well meaning politician of the Doaba Region of Punjab. Som Parkash is a self made man and I think he is proud of this. With his sheer stint and good credentials, he

graduated from PCS to IAS and was allotted 1988 batch in the Punjab Cadre. BJP is hungry for good dalit faces. Som Parkash with his down to earth approach fitted the bill and did not look back. BJP picked him and made him contest from the Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency in 2009 but he could not make it and lost to Santosh Chaudhary of Congress by only a couple of hundred votes. SomParkash showed his mettle and became MLA twice from Phagwara constitutency and served as Chief Parliamentary Secretary in Parkash Singh Badal governments. He won the Hoshiarpur seat with a good margin and made it to PM Narendra Modi’s Team to run the government. It is a matter of gratification that he has been allotted an important desk in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. I am confident that Som Parkash, with a long administrative experience and political sagacity, will deliver and come to the expectations of his bosses and the people. I take this opportunity to wish him well.

On a little personal note, I may add that I have had a single occasion to speak to SomParkash briefly on telephone from abroad in connection with a personal matter when he was the DC of Jalandhar. He may or may not even recall this favour done to me. I must say with a sense of gratitude that the work was done. I found him a reasonably helpful man with a positive outlook.

Vividha – First All India Urdu Mushaira: Vividha – an outfit to ‘Bringing Together the Diversities in Poetry and Music” provided me an opportunity to benefit from the “Irshad – Pehla Kul Hind Mushaira” on June 2 at Jalandhar. It was a satisfying and impressive evening held at an equally prestigious venue – Kundan Lal Saigal Memorial Auditorium. I am grateful to my friends Sangat Ram and Deepak Bali who very kindly invariably tend to

invite me to such cultural events in and around Jalandhar. I was happy to learn that the main motivation behind this noble activity comes from a renowned poet and literary personality, Sardar Khushbir Singh Shaad who happens to be my fellow resident at a condominium – Silver Residency Apartments. The Mushaira was named “Irshaad” very thoughtfully, I think, to demonstrate a sense of gratitude to ‘Shaad Sahib’ – the mind behind the show. It was a well organized event though, due to some unavoidable reasons, it was behind schedule and the audience was not too happy.

The redeeming feature was that the Chief Guest of the function was a well known socio-cultural, apart from politics, personality of Jalandhar Sardar Iqbal Singh. I was at ease to sit with two of my friends – Principal Jagdish Chander Joshi, himself an Urdu poet of a sterling worth and Baldev Singh Narang, a renowned Guru of classical music in and around Jalandhar. I could listen only to a couple of poets in the first hour of the show. They were good for a novice like me. Later, I was told that many good Shayars (Poets) made the audience spell bound with their Shayari (Poetry). I understand Vividha would make it an annual feature in the cultural life of Jalandhar which produced worthy sons of the soil like K.L. Saigal, Hafiz Jalandhary, Jagjeet Singh and Hans Raj Hans to carry forward the mission of historical and legendary Harbhalabh Sangeet Mela. I wish Vividha all the best for all success in the years to come.

While leaving the venue, I purchased three poetry books of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Krishna BihariNoor and Khushbir Singh Shaad from the book stall. I tend to brush up my cursory interest in Urdu poetry through Devnagari or Punjabi script. Gulzar has rightly said:-

बड़ी अरिस्टोक्रेसी है उर्दू जुवां में ,

फ़क़ीरी में नवाबी का मज़ा देती है!