AIR interview of Dina Nath Nadim, 1971

An old radio interview of poet Dina Nath Nadim (conducted by M Y Taing) for All India Radio in around 1971.

Family history

Lal Ded
Poverty
Studies and JL Kaul
Hatred for community
Freedom to revolt against family and relatives
Hatred of regime
Lenin at a Tobacco shop, Bhagwaan Lenin
Anarchist Bomb making
Chakbast
Gandhi
Poem on Mej Kashmir his first in Kashmiri (interviewer goes wah wah but confuses Hindi and Urdu)
History of NC
Pandit convert to Muslim to join Muslim Conference in around 1933
Prem Nath Bazaz Marxim
Battan hienz Khenz
State Subject Movement and mining engineer Lambho Dhar Zutshi
then came Iyengar
Dina Nath Philasafer and his contribution to State Subject Movement
“Free-thinkers Association”
Mehmooda
Arrest
for atheistic verse
“I am poor”
Mushairas
Amil Darvesh
DP Dahr Poet
Ehsan Danish
Progressive poets
move to Kashmiri
but not before Hindi
Jalandhari
Lahoor
Faiz
Ramanand Sagar
Modernism
English
Making Marxism Kashmiri
Shams Fakir
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Naya Kashmir – Roos
Cornforth Marx. Only three chapters of Marx
Vakh
Shrukh
Vopar
failure with Vakh
shorter Vakh
safeed nazam haiku
Failure of Naya Kashmir
1957
member of communist party
teachers who supported him
Government who opposed him
Clarity
Bombur Yamberzal
music too, folk tunes from mother
marriage against wish
she died
Trade Union threw him out of his own school, moved to Lahore
Alone, met a girl
Love
Haeer
Love poems during this time
Honest: Sadiq, N.N. Raina, K.A. Abbas, Karra, Somnath Zutshi
Nazam at Mujahid Manzil
No Tea, No Chai
Cultural Front
Mahendra Raina
Rahman Rahi
Shela Bhatia
Decline of front in 1953
origin of communist party
Baskshi Gulam Mohammad didn’t do it
Kurban Ali, Ajay Ghosh, Dr Deen Mohammed Taseer
First member Mahmood
BPL Bedi author of Naya Kashmir document
maker of People’s Academy
Jia Lal Kalam and Sadiq would have been president
work with Bhagat theater as president
origins of ‘ras’ who came from outside Kashmir
Sat Lal Sitari
Basant Bagh Parsi theater. Amateur theater company. In urdu of Agha Hashar Kashmiri.
Alfred theatrical company
Saraswati dramatical sociey Karan nagar
national theater, Gaw kadal
Kashmir theater. First time women took part in it.
Attempt at making first Kashmiri film in 1928. He wrote script.
Script of R.C. Kak got approved.
Professor Jia Lal Koul was hero
Silent movie
Film banned on protest from pandits. It was on dowry.
Theater artist called ‘Ras Kath’
Satich Kahvit, first play, Nand Lal Mandloo
Actor Jagan Lal Saqi, Sudama Ji of radio 
Before Qabali Attack 
at Draibyaar, Mohan Lal Aima staged ‘Vidhva’
Visit to China
opinion on Chinese. Respect.
Visit to Russia
they influenced by East
he was there with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman [which gives the date of this interview]
Similarity between Tajakistaan and Kashmir
“it is like home”
On Kashmiri literature
Importance of Mehjoor
Bob Dylan stands no where
Traditional Humanism
Guṇaḍhya’s tale as known in Kashmir
opinion on Rehman Rahi
on Amin Kamil
Likes new poets Muzaffar Azim, Ghulam Nabi Gowhar, Vasdev reh, Radey Nath Massarat, Riaz Razi
First Kashmiri Story, “Jawabi Card” on radio, 1948. By Nadim.
Why his work is not yet compiled
Why Nadim
first name Makhmoor
Sehermakshi

Nadim picked from a book of Karim ur logath in 1935

his friendship with Mehjoor who was with Congress at the time
Bazm-e-Kongposh. Music used to make new poets popular
Talk about Shiekh Abdullah 
Riot of 1933
Shiekh had beard
He had popular support
Zindabad
It was a time
Communist initiation at house of Dr. Mewa Ram Lakhwara
Bakshi and Sadiq
closer to Sadiq
Bakshi supported cultural activities
by Sadiq was more appreciative in true sense
His favorite nazam, “Myon Afsaan”
and “Lakhcukuklakhchun”
and “KazultuAftaab” for a commrade, unpublished. A random scene from a street in Kashmir.
A lesson in social history of Kashmir.

Listen, imagine and see.


video link

shruff

One of my favorite sounds
For “as aaye na Chakravan”
For we have been scattered
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Update December 2012: Learnt something new. In some place in U.P., some people actually call it Shoof. And is an important part of Brahmin marriage ritual.

Captured at a wedding.

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Herath File

It has become a festival of sound. Right now, I  await a sound from Jammu. A phone call. My grandmother will declare that the pooja is over and that dinner can be had. The festival begins. ‘The’ festival. Right now, I see people searching for audio of ‘Vatak Pooja’. They search for a sound. Instructions. I know the sound. Now too familiar. they search of unfamiliar instructions. I know how the scene will play: one controls the tape, one serves the gods, one manages the family, one plays the funny guy. No ordinary marriage this. The Ashen Mad god gets married. I pick this book, by someone who thinks he probably saved something. I read this ditty, explaining 15 days of Shivratri. Something survived. I know these sounds. Okdoh, Mavas, Herath, Vagur

Akh tI akh Kho’daya,
One and One is God
ZItI zin gyaDIra
Two is bundle of firewood
Trayshkal  Duna
Three faced perfect Walnut
Tsor kunj alam
Four cornered world
PAntsh gAyi PanDav
Five were Pandavs
She’tI’she Re’shi
Six were Reshis
Sath ZalI satam
Seven are Jwala’s flames
ATh Huri ATham
Eight, Her day. Ragnya’s day.
Nav tsitIr navam
Nine, we meditate (rest)
Dah dya’rl aAhAm
Ten, money flows
Kah gaDi Kah
Eleven, let’s eat fish
VagIri bah
Twelfth, god’s messenger Vagur is here
He’rItsI truvah 
Thirteenth, Herath is on thirteen
KralI tso’dah
Fourteenth, pay the potters
Duni mavas
Fifteenth, let’s eat those walnuts
SozIni okdoh
One, send out those walnuts
Wah BAli Wah ti wah Bali wah 
Dance, little girl! Dance!
    -0-
And this is how it actually goes. Made this recording a couple of years ago at home. It is delightful madness. If it is Herath and you are missing the sound. Do tune in. Play around with the play button. And Herath Mubarak.

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