Rooh

Rupinder Kaur

• Publisher: Verve Poetry Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781912565085
• eBook ISBN: 9781912565740
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

For Rupinder Kaur, writing, along with any other art form, should be azaad – free: free to express what the artist wants or needs to say, without any censorship. Rupinder is known for speaking her mind and this is reflected in her poems.In Rooh, her debut poetry collection, she takes us on a poetic journey that transcends borders and arbitrary boundaries of subject and style. Her work straddles English and Punjabi culture – fusing words from Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu and English. Her poems look at love, religion, identity, politics, history, taboos, society – often questioning orthodox views, particularly around the roles that different genders are expected to adopt. Rooh has a grand scope, and stares unblinkingly at the world. It is a stunning first collection from this young, intelligent poet.To reflect these concerns the poems in Rooh have been detatched from their own moorings, to become and single river of verse. A river that by turns widens and narrows, meanders and charges rapidly onwards, that is contained when it isn't breaking its bounds. The poems move with the freedom that Rupinder wishes she could see in the world around her – and with this in mind this book can be read in one long sitting or can be dipped into and out of like a cold river on a hot day, as your own rooh or soul dictates.Rupinder Kaur is a Birmingham born Panjabi poet and biomedical science student with an immense love for South Asian arts. She sees writing and reading poetry as a way to liberate the soul.

Rooh

A word which unites Panjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian meaning soul.

The soul sees no religion. The soul sees no border. The soul is free.

Art, poetry, writing; where does any creative expression come from? Through music I discovered poetry. I remember quite clearly the first time I fell in love with the Panjabi language, listening to a Qawwali sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The Qawwali, originally penned by Shiv Kumar Batalvi, a well renowned Panjabi poet who I now consider to be my favourite, began as a poem: “Maye ni maye, mere geetaan de naina vich birhon di rarak pavey.” The Qawwali transported me to another world and inspired me to begin exploring poetry. It was during this journey that I first came across Amrita Pritam, a female Panjabi poet known for her famous piece calling upon Waris Shah, the greatest poet in the history of Panjab. I feel that it was through Amrita’s words that I truly began to find myself.

People often say to me “You must have been born in Panjab, to have such a love towards your mother tongue!” In fact, it wasn’t until I was nineteen that I learned how to read and write the language. These days I spend as much time as I can to read Panjabi poetry to understand my mother’s words.

At a time when many children in the diaspora are losing touch with their mother tongues, others are finding them through poetry and through music. Today there is a real sense of reclaiming our cultural identity and heritage. Unlike our first-generation parents, we are now rediscovering our voices and telling our histories through the medium our ancestors once favoured – through poetry. The very folk songs our grandmothers sing at weddings to the tales of bravery that is recited, to the way that we pray it is all brought to life in the very same way – poetry. I’m grateful to my mother for telling me stories while putting me to sleep. From the folk tales of Panjab to the Udasis of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the influence of these stories now heavily shapes and inspires my own poetry.

The beauty of language is that it is ‘azaad,’ – free from borders, independent of nationality and state. The language you love becomes yours, it becomes your home, your country.

Our ‘Rooh,’ our pure and true soul (where I feel expression itself is born,) is fluent. The words have always been inside, lying dormant, waiting for us to pick up a pen and spill the ink across the paper, to give them new life.

My Rooh is a journey through which I transcend borders and rivers. Poetry is my mode of transport.

Rupinder 2019.

Rooh

From the ruins of a Masjid

to the streets of Delhi

to a room where old songs are playing Urdu-...

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Rooh
• Acknowledgements
• About Verve Poetry Press