Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh remembered

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Jaito (Faridkot), January 10

A state-level function marked the birth anniversary of Punjabi writer Prof Gurdial Singh here today.

Over 3,000 members of various farmers’ and farm labourers’ unions participated in the function.

“Gurdial Singh Divas” was organised under the aegis of “Gursharan Singh Lok Kala Salaam Kafla”. Gursharan Singh, affectionately called Bhai Manna Singh, was a prominent theatric in Punjab.

Since the death of Prof Gurdial Singh on August 16, 2016, members of the Kafla has been organising meetings to urge more and more people to assemble in Jaito on his birthday to remember the writer.

Punjabi writers, including Surjit Pattar, Waryam Singh Sandhu, Baldev Singh Sadaknama and Faridkot MP Prof Sadhu Singh said Gurdial Singh’s novels were in tune with the times and narratives of the oppressed, without any didacticism of revolution.

Prof Sadhu Singh said the characters of his novels — Bishna, Jagvir and Parsa — were capable of pulling off the heroic in their daily struggle against their own selves and the world with their power of endurance.

A play based on a novel of Prof Gurdial Singh “Adh Chanani Raat” was enacted.

During the function, Mohammad Sadique, Congress candidate from Jaito, faced an awkward situation when he tried to sit in the first row, reserved for the writers. The organisers asked Sadique to sit among the audience. Though Sadique agreed to shift, some local Congress leaders showing annoyance left the programme with Sadique.