Amrita Paritam "Aj Akha Waris Shah Nu..."

"Aj Akha waris shah nu kiton kabran vichon bol
te aj kitabe ishq da koi agla varka fol...
Ik roi si dhi punjab di tu likh likh maare wane
aj lakha dhiyan roundiyan tenu waris shah nu kehan
uth dard manda diya dardiya. uth tak apna punjab
aj bele lasha bichiyan te lahu di bhari chenab"

This couplet is written by Punjabi poet Amrita Paritam. In these lines Pritam has been able to express in depth the pain and sorrow in punjab at the time of partition of India in 1947. A large part of punjab was partitioned into the present pakistan’s punjab.

Amrita paritam has related the incident to the waris shah's HEER. Waris shah has perfectly expressed the pain felt by HEER in the love story of HEER RANJHA.

Paritam asks Warris shah to speak from his grave to express the pain of the people today. Do it as beautifully as he did in his poem HEER for Heer. When Heer got separated from Ranjha, warris shah cried through his poetry and now thousands of love stories and relations are going to end. Who will cry for them? Who will express their pain? Who will share their sorrows? Who will express how the love got converted to hatred? All the daughters of Punjab ask warris shah to come out of his grave and see his punjab whose land is covered by the dead bodies and the river chenab is filled blood. Come warris shah to express how it feels when violence replaces compassion, when rape replaces respect, when closely knit fabric of punjab has been torn apart.

This has been similarly asserted by Khushwant singh in his novel 'Train to Pakistan' and also a movie based on the novel.

The reference to river chenab has added a special touch in the poem because river chenab is symbolically more attached with Pakistan side of Punjab this is because for most of its length it flows in Pakistan. The other rivers like Ravi, Beas and sutlej are still on the Indian side of Punjab. And river jhelum has not been mentioned because it mostly flows in Jammu and Kashmir and fully flows into Punjab of Pakistan. Paritam has beautifully selected Chenab to make it more touching to the reader.

The poem is an expression from the stand point of the girls. This is because they were the worst sufferers because of crimes like rape.