Mere Dhir Uncle, Ninder’s profile of litterateur Santokh Singh Dhir, in Sirjana magazine triggered off a strong reaction and a lot of laughter. Much of it was at the expense of Dhir. I met Dhir Sahib at his Mohali residence, arguing that while I enjoyed the profile, it didn’t lessen my respect for him. And the two weren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Dhir Sahib wasn’t convinced. “When I didn’t like the profile, how can I believe that it is a good one?” he said.
When I narrated the tale to a visiting senior editorial staffer of The Indian Express from Delhi, he enjoyed it immensely and asked if I can write it down. This is a result of that, published on the front page.
He was once judge’s errand boy, and then wrote about it.
Now the
peon-turned-author is at the centre of a literary row,
and
touring Canada, U.S.
S P Singh
CHANDIGARH
In the mid-nineties, he was a ‘temporary peon’, urging men of letters to get his job regularized. Currently, he is at the centre of a literary controversy in Punjab. He has written the profile of one of Punjabi’s top writers, Santokh Singh Dhir, who hasn’t taken very kindly to it. While most of the literary world is backing the peon-turned-author, many are terming it as a fitting finale to an earlier row – a story written on the peon by Dhir had cost him his job of peon once.
Ninder Ghugianvi has come a long way since his days of dusting tables and chairs and ferrying trays of water and tea glasses at Sahitaya Sadan, the State Languages Department guest house for visiting writers in Patiala. He is currently touring Canada and the U.S., is much in demand on Punjabi radio and TV stations, contributes to mass-circulation vernaculars and is the author of more than dozen acclaimed books.
“I am very happy at his success, but I am angry at the profile he has written of me. Ninder is like my son, but he should know that a father must never be berated by his own son,” Dhir told The Indian Express. Dhir’s profile – My Dhir Uncle – was recently published by Punjabi literary journal Sirjana, a much-respected publication, and many compared it favorably to Balwant Gargi’s famous pen-sketches of fellow authors.
Next issue of Sirjana carried reactions by many known friends of Dhir, dripping with praise for Ninder, but also Dhir’s rejoinder – he hadn’t liked his profile one bit.
“I am shocked. I thought Dhir uncle would love me for what I have written,” Ninder said. The debate is still on, the latest issue of Sirjana carries Ninder’s defence of his sketch of Dhir, and Sirjana’s editor Dr Raghubir Singh is constantly asked at all social gatherings about the row.
But still more interesting is Ninder’s own profile.
In 1995, while working as a temporary peon at Languages Department Patiala headquarter, he was known for endearing himself to every visiting author with the simplest of tricks: invariably he would have read their works and the authors would be taken aback by a peon well-versed in Punjabi literature.
Many scribbled out recommendation letters for the peon to get him the coveted post of ‘regular peon’, then Director of the Bhasha Vibhag (Languages Department) Ajit Singh Kakkar relented, and Ninder became the happiest person, but not for long.
Ninder, who never got to study past matric, was not just a keen reader; he had started contributing regularly in vernacular newspapers. Visiting men of letters knew Ninder better than they did the honchos of the Department where he was a peon.
Dhir, who had known Ninder closely during his frequent stays at Languages Department guest house, found in him good story material, and wrote Pucca Rag in 1996 about a literature-lover peon Jinder Jugianvi. The rhyming imaginary name was a dead giveaway, and since the story slammed the functioning of Languages Department, Ninder was shown the door. Dhir’s argument that “it is A-one story I have written” did not appeal to the Department head, and it took intervention of then Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal to get Ninder reinstated as a peon. He quit soon thereafter.
With only a matriculation to show off as academic qualification, Ninder invariably landed only menial jobs. He worked as an errand boy with a judge, endeared himself to him, and got his job regularized, Even though the judge who employed him got transferred, Ninder remained the errand boy – Ardali in court terminology.
For an errand boy, Ninder squeezed out of his daily experiences the book Main Sa Judge Da Ardali (I Was Once Judge’s Errand Boy) which made him more famous than he had hoped for. “The best of the Punjabi language authors do not sell single edition of not more than 500 copies, but Ninder’s book has sold over 3,000 copies. Another edition could soon be on its way,” said Megh Raj Mitter of Vishwa Bharti Publications.
Different people love different things about Ninder – some love the fact that Ninder neither conceals nor makes his impoverished background a virtue, others love his raconteur skills, and some are forever praising his music. Ninder plays the folk instrument toombi, a single-string violin-like instrument which is strummed with fingers.
“I fell in love with toombi and Ustad Yamla Jat when I was a kid. Since then, I have sung Yamla’s songs,” Ninder says. Yamla Jat was Punjab’s legendary folk singer who made toombi famous. Punjab’s folk are often defined with Yamla as a reference point.
As a kid, Ninder was a jolly fellow. His family had virtually no land, they ran a shop carved out of one room of the house, and Ninder was never comfortable with sitting at a shop selling knick-knack to fellow poor villagers. It would have taken a million years to become rich or famous, but Ninder is today both.
“This is his second trip abroad, and I can tell you his cell phone does not stop ringing. Last time, he had earned only about Rs 3 lakh, this time he won’t come back with less than a million. Wherever he goes, he is showered with dollars,” said Ninder’s host in Toronto, Iqbal Ramoowalia, brother of MP and former Union Minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia.
Sahitya Akademi awardee Surjit Patar terms Ninder as “someone full of humility despite his fame.” Jagdev Singh Jassowal, known for promoting folk artistes and making many famous, has reason to be thankful to Ninder to make him (Jassowal) famous. Ninder wrote Jassowal’s biography, just as he did his ustad Yamla Jat’s, pop and sufi singer Hans Raj Hans and many others.
“A gem, a real gem,” was the reaction of almost every person of Punjabi’s world of letters when asked about Ninder. Waryam Singh Sandhu has assured him he would mollify Dhir, Gulzar Singh Sandhu said he liked it, Harbhajan Halwarvi said if someone had written such a profile of him, he would have loved it. Each of them is a man of considerable stature in Punjabi literary world.
But what Dhir himself has to say is rather interesting. “Don’t you ever think I don’t love Ninder. I would only have further improved the profile. If only he had shown it to me before publishing it,” he said.
Errand boy has come a long way indeed.
(ABCDE)