The other dimension

by Amrita Pritam

Book by Pritam, Amrita

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2005

About the author

Amrita Pritam (Punjabi: ਅਮ੍ਰਿਤਾ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਮ, امرتا پریتم ) was considered the first prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist, and essayist. She was the leading 20th-century poet of the Punjabi language, who is equally loved on both the sides of the India-Pakistan border. With a career spanning over six decades, she produced over 100 books, of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography that were translated into several Indian and foreign languages.

She is most remembered for her poignant poem, Aj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah - "Ode to Waris Shah"), an elegy to the 18th-century Punjabi poet in which she expressed her anguish over massacres during the partition of India in 1947. As a novelist, her most noted work was Pinjar (The Skeleton) (1950), in which she created her memorable character, Puro and depicted loss of humanity and ultimate surrender to existential fate. The novel was made into an award-winning eponymous film in 2003.

When British India was partitioned into the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947, she migrated from Lahore to India, though she remained equally popular in Pakistan throughout her life, as compared to her contemporaries like Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi.

Known as the most important voice for the women in Punjabi literature, in 1956, she became the first woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for her magnum opus, a long poem, Sunehe (Messages). She received the Bhartiya Jnanpith, one of India's highest literary awards in 1982 for Kagaz Te Canvas (The Paper and the Canvas). The Padma Shri came her way in 1969 and finally, Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award in 2004, and in the same year she was honoured with India's highest literary award, given by the Sahitya Akademi (India's Academy of Letters), the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship given to the "immortals of literature" for lifetime achievement.

Reviews

[Moth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its all about Amrita Pritam`s dreams and interpretation of those.

[Itswhilereading · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is a non fiction about her dreams. Written in mostly past tense, Amrita Pritam pens down her dreams from 23 January 1978 to 28 December 1988. The format is not continuous, something which made it a more personal writing. She has divided the book in two parts and is most interested in knowing about her past lives through these dreams. Many priests, saints, figures of ancient times, mythology, appear in her world.

The interesting part was her own analysis of these dreams and how these dreams from her subconscious mind guided her conscious writing. Sometimes what we write, becomes true — Amrita Pritam gives her own reality to these words. If you have read Many Lives, Many Masters, some connections might be drawn in your mind as well. But all in all these book leaves us with questions (so many) that some of us will continue to always keep us in check. I wanted to see more diverse analysis of these dreams rather than just from saints. This world of Pritam doesn't tally with mine, but there is an honest prose that is laid bare for the reader and their senses. This book does make me curious but I don't know what else can I do about it or how do I really respond to it.