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Surti

AJMER RODE 

 

        

first edition                            second edition

Raghbir Rachna Parkashan, India, 1979; Third Eye Publications, Canada , 1989; pages: 112  

 

Most poems in Surti are experimental and reflect my interest in physical sciences. Punjabi department at Delhi University has been especially  receptive to these poems. Dr. Sutinder Singh Noor, chair, has recommended them to graduate students and discussed them extensively in his classes while Dr. Vanita has done much to elucidate their nature.

 

Ajmer Rode,  Dr. Sutinder Singh Noor. 

A  reading at  Delhi University, 1994. 

Photo: Bachint Kaur 

 

COMMENTS

I feel, with these poems, Ajmer has expanded the scope of Punjabi Language, and has quietly given a new turn to Punjabi poetry. The scope of Punjabi Language expands because of his spiritual oneness with the modern scientific awareness, and the new turn to Punjabi poetry results from his ability to express this awareness on a very delicate and human level. – Dr. Attar Singh (Punjabi critic, late)      

Ajmer Rode has experimented more than others to bring about this newness to the post modern (Punjabi) poetry… and this collection of poems has done the most to make structure of our poetry postmodern – Dr. Vanita ( critic, Poet)  

At this point of time this kind of poetry had to come. It gives hope for a new poetry. It is just a dawn, dawn of the poetry of new century. Let the sun rise.-Amarjit Grewal (critic, essayist) 

Ajmer Rode has intermingled science and poetry so deftly that Punjabi language can take genuine pride in his poetry. -Amarjit Chandan (poet, essayist)

With his concrete poems in Surti , he (Ajmer Rode) has brought forth an awareness of a new form of poetry -Dr. Sutinder Singh Noor (critic, poet)

In the entire tradition of Punjabi Poetry Ajmer Rode, in my view, is the first poet who has written Western style concrete and computer poetry. -Dr. Mohanjit (poet, critic).

Ajmer Rode's first collection of poems, Surti, presents a new style of its own in Punjabi poetry. - Harbhajan Halwarvi (poet, editor of  The Tribune) 

 

Blue Horse Dancing

The first thing Dr. Haribhajan Singh told me, when I met him first time in Delhi, 1981, was that 'your poem, Blue Horse Dancing, is wonderful; it mirrors the decay of a whole culture." I remained quiet, but the remark  filled me with elation. My experimentation with poetry, considered intellectual masterbation by some, was after all validated by a writer no less than Dr. Haribhajan Singh. 

Later the poem was published on the title page of the monthly Watno Dur rather decoratively. Editors Surinder Dhanjal and Sadhu suggested that a question mark be put after the last line of the poem lest it should invite a heated reaction from the already overheated Vancouver Sikh community in early eighties. We put the question mark but it didn't help much. Indo-Canadian editor Tara Singh Hayer took note of the poem and remarked that it was an insult to the community. Luckily the community at the time was too engulfed in extraordinary happenings to take notice of this little poem.       

 

                                                               

              ("Blue Horse Dancing" from Surti)                         ("For Salman Rushdi" from Surti)                            

    

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