PEN WIELDERS IN THE CITY OF STONES

It is often said, ‘The pen is the tongue of the mind’. But has anyone ever analyzed that the one who wields the pen is the one who is bound to sit in a corner of his study and give voice to undesirable human thoughts, desires, wants and emotions! Authors, no doubt, are a weird lot who are most often, forgotten by the society.

Chandigarh, the City Beautiful, deserves a fair mention in the history of Modern Township planning in India. A number of writers, poets and scholars have lived in this which include the famous Urdu poet Hari Chand Akhtar, Manohar Sahani, Dr.Mulk Raj Anand, Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Dr.Mohan Singh’Diwana’, Chand Narain Chand, Shiv Kumar Batalvi and many more! Unfortunately these names are aliens to the present day generation of Chandigarhians

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But the city still has authors like Dr.Indu Bali, Dr.Naresh, Shakuntla Brajmohan, Dr.Gurcharan Singh and the like but to the misfortune of this ‘City Beautiful’ or the ‘City of Stones’ as called by the authors, these persons who have made Chandigarh proud by winning dozens of national and international awards, find a rare mention among the city residents.

As Ovid said, ‘Scripta fervent annos (writing survives the years)’, he failed to mention that writers do not. It’s high time for the city residents to recollect the words of Lord Byron and Don Juan that,

‘But words are things and a small drop of ink’

falling like dew, upon a thought produces,

that which makes thousands, perhaps a million think.’

And to realize that they ought to have a sense of concern for the esteemed personalities who have added heart to this city of stones.