In her own write

Despite consistent slander, Amrita Pritam led life on her own terms. In her relationships and writing, she always found a way to rebel

- Poonam Saxena

In 1947, Punjabi poet and writer Amrita Pritam (1919-2005) left Lahore, sought refuge in Dehra Dun and then went to Delhi to look for a job. She was 28 years old.

While on the train at night, she found she couldn't sleep. It was dark and windy outside, and the small mounds in the flat landscape looked like graves to her. She had witnessed too much horror, seen too many dead bodies and too many people who looked like living corpses.

As she sat in the train, she thought of 18th century poet Waris Shah, known for his great Punjabi epic, Heer Ranjha. Hands trembling, Amrita Pritam picked up the pen and wrote the poem, Aaj aakhan Waris Shah nu (Today I invoke Waris Shah...) on the train that night, where she asked the poet to mourn the suffering of not one Heer, but of lakhs of daughters of Punjab. Who will sing of their sorrows, she asked.

It became Pritam’s most famous poem ~ people would carry it in their pockets, take it out and weep. All this she recounts in her autobiography, Rasidi Ticket. The poem triggered a wave of slander against her in the Punjabi media. Sikhs said she should have addressed Guru Nanak, the Communists said she should have addressed Lenin or Stalin.