पंकज सिंह की याद में… Salute to the unsung hero of contemporary Hindi poetry

”कृष्णजी, मैं दिल्ली आ गया हूँ….” 17 दिसम्बर को Pankaj Singh का दूरभाष आया. वे अपने मुल्क़ मुज़फ़्फ़रपुर से आये थे जहां उन्हें कविता के लिये सम्मानित किया गया था. इस पर मैंने कहा- मैं भी अपने देश जा रहा हूँ, लौटकर मुलाक़ात होती है.

इससे पहले एक रात 12 बजे पटना से उनका फ़ोन आया जब वे मुज़फ़्फ़रपुर जाने से पहले पाटलिपुत्र में किसी संस्कृति-प्रेमी नौकरशाह के यहाँ ठहरे हुये थे और तरल-गरल के बाद उसे अपनी ब्रिटिश-इंग्लिश में झाड़-पौंछ कर बिना खाना खाये किसी होटल में शिफ़्ट कर रहे थे.

Perhaps this was his last quarrel.

किसने सोचा था कि मुज़फ़्फ़रपुर की यह यात्रा उनकी अंतिम यात्रा होगी.

अब मुझे कृष्णजी जैसे विचित्र नाम से कौन पुकारेगा.

Salute to the unsung hero of contemporary Hindi poetry.

साहित्यकार कृष्ण कल्पित उर्फ कल्बे कबीर के फेसबुक वॉल से.

xxx

Chaman Lal : What a sad news posted by Ajay K. Mehra at JNU First Decade page– ‘Poet Pankaj Singh is no more’ – a shock— will take time to accept it….Now so many friends have written over it, I have also to admit, though I am in Delhi, that Pankaj is no more. When I had joined JNU as student in 1977 or even before started trying for it since 1976, Man Mohan and Pankaj both were popular among JNU community as poets. Both had written sharp poems criticizing Indira Gandhi and her emergency regime.

Pankaj later went to London in BBC as journalist. He was fond of travelling and stayed in Paris also for few years. During my student days in Periyar hostel he would stay for weeks together and we both sleeping on rooftops in summer days. We shared lot of our dukh-sukh as we had many common friends as well. He had a zeal for living and his last activity was joining campaign against intolerance against writers and society in general. He supported award returnee writers and stood in solidarity with them..his passing away so suddenly is saddening…  

जाने माने शिक्षक चमन लाल के फेसबुक पेज से.