“Nobody in my family had ever gone through horrors of the Partition in particular as an actor in it but I never understood why I always felt deeply and was always lured by the stories, visuals or events of ’47. One of the biggest migration and movement that was forcibly acted upon the common people of South Asia, clearly based on the lines of their religion. As ridiculous it sounds, it was more haunting to me as a legacy of ‘Colonization’ and a never fading away scar on the soul of the Sub-continent. Out of all the histories, be it political or economical. What mattered to the most was shattering of the ‘Hope’- breaking down of the idea of being a Human. ..

The idea of bargaining and bartering of fellow humans on some negotiation table, talking of their exchanges and movement. I would not even hesitate to say that History of south-asia is nothing but certainly in the post-partition era, where we still find 14th August 1947 as our reference point for various political ideas. And that is all the history books were talking of- Mountbatten, Radcliff, Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah. We missed our Hero -The People. That’s why we designed this Art based on The cries of a common man. We chose Oral stories from 1947 Partition Archive and Partition Museum and made an Art Installation out of the real narrative. As Saros Cowasjee said, ” Nehru made tryst with destiny. What of the ‘others’?- tryst with common people”. ..

https://guriqball.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/art-experience-project-undelivered/

Ik haseen gaaon Habib Jalib

Ik haseen gaaon tha kinaar-e-aab…

Kitna dildaar tha, dayaar-e-aab

Kya ajab, beniaaz basti thay…

Muflisi mein bhi aik masti thay…

Kitne dildaar thay hamaaray dost…

Woh bechaaray, woh besahaaray dost

 A beautiful village by the banks of the river…

How dear was that watery realm.

What wondrous, carefree lives they led.

In poverty too a playfulness.

How dear were our friends,

Our hapless, unmoored friends.

Habib Jalib (born in Hoshiarpur) died on 13 March 1993 at the age of 64

http://dilipsimeon.blogspot.com/2015/03/shahram-azhar-remembering-habib-jalib.html