Book review of Raseedi Ticket رسیدی ٹکٹ of Amrita Pretam,, Dr Shazia Kanwal

 

Book review of Raseedi Ticket رسیدی ٹکٹ of Amrita Pretam,,, Dr Shazia Kanwal

Amrita Pritam (Amrit Kaur) born in 1919 in a small village town of GujranWala . Her mother Raj Bibi died, when she was only eleven. Her father Kartar Singh was a preacher and a poet. Amrita start writing at very early age after confronting devastating loneliness due to her mother’s death. She glorify herself as a progressive writer but along with her progressive writings she also wrote romantic poetry. Her master piece writing “Ajj Aakhan Waris Shah Nu” is the most significant piece of her progressive writings. Her books have been translated into many languages including French and English. She also had written her autobiography by the name of Raseedi Ticket or The Revenue Stamp. 

Khushwant Singh once told Amrita Pritam that the story of her life was negligibly so tiny and trivial that it could easily be written at the back of a revenue stamp. Though it was said in joke light heartedly but Amrita Pritam penned her autobiography under the title of 'Raseedi Ticket', or The Revenue Stamp.

ایک دن خشونت سنگھ نے دوران گفتگو کہا:

"تمہاری سوانح کا کیا ہے بس ایک حادثہ، لکھنے بیٹھو تو رسیدی ٹکٹ پر درج ہو جائے

“Raseedi Ticket” tells the story of Amrita Pritam in her own words; merely looks like an autobiography but a novel. Which revolves around and digs deep into Amrita as a daughter, as a lover, as a friend, as an author of so many momentous books and as a daring and audacious lady. The book let the reader drift with all the feminine passions and sentiments in all the stages of her life being daughter, mother, lover, friend and writer. Amrita Pritam has an ability to captures readers’ mind through her writing by giving them wings to fly with her words.

Amrita Pritam’s life journey started from small town of Gujranwala and ended in Delhi. This autobiography is full of tales which shows how Amrita felts distressed at the death of her mother, excited while fantasying a shadow she created in the mind since her childhood as only friend ( which she named Rajan ), devastated by the dismays of the Partition, voracious and relentless in making her name in the field of literature after the hard time of partition, bold and daring while reflecting her love and affection towards Sahir Ludhyani through her writings.

     She also inscribes in detail about how her conscious and unconscious awareness influenced her pen and gave birth to some of her significant writings. In one of her spectacular novel “Yatri”, main character SUNDRAH was a complete depiction of her unconscious mind as she was seeing her own self in the character of sundrah and her intimate love for Sahir (while she realised this fact later in her life).‏

      She also wrote a detailed account of few of her travel diaries to different countries for receiving dignitary awards. Amrita was the first ever female recipient of Sahithya Akademi Award, recieved D.Litt (an honorary degree) from many universities. She also received many national and International Awards for her Romantic and Progressive writings. 

At the concluding part of the book writer confess that by writing autobiography, an author invites the reader to look into their personal lives. Thus it makes the writer liable not to hide or sugar coat certain happenings from readers’ sight. Amrita Pritam even very boldly discussed her love life with Sahir and Imroz in the book. She has very decently and beautifully romanticised her intimacy with Sahir and profound friendship with Imroz. 

ایک دفعہ ایک اردو مشاعرے پر لوگ ساحر سے آٹو گراف لے رہے تھے لوگ کچھ منتشر ہوئے تو میں ہنس کر ہاتھ کی ہتھیلی اس کے آگے کر دی اور کہا، آٹو گراف!

ساحر نے ہاتھ میں پکڑے پین کی سیاہی اپنے انگوٹھے پر لگا کر وہ انگوٹھا میری ہتھیلی پر لگا دیا جیسے میری ہتھیلی کے کاغذ پر دستخط کر دئیے اس کاغذ کی کیا عبارت تھی جس کے اوپر اس نے دستخط کیے یہ سب ہواؤں کے حوالے ہے یہ عبارت نہ کبھی اس نے پڑھی نہ زندگی نے اسی لیے کہہ سکتی ہوں

ساحر ایک خیال تھا . . . . . . . ہوا میں چمکتا، شائد میرے اپنے ہی خیالوں کا ایک جادو، لیکن امروز کے ساتھ گزاری زندگی ، ابتدائی کچھ سالوں کو چھوڑ کر ایک بیخودی کے عالم تک پہنچ گئی ہے اس عالم کو شائد ابھی یاد آئی ہے ایک روز کی ایک بات میں سے کچھ پکڑا جا سکتا ہے

ایک دن کسی آئے مہمان نے میرا اور امروز کا ہاتھ دیکھا مجھے کہنے لگا ....... تمہارے ہاتھ میں دولت کی بڑی گہری اور لمبی لکیر ہے تمہیں زندگی میں کبھی دولت کی کمی نہیں آ سکتی لیکن امروز سے کہنے لگا ....... تمہارے پاس دولت کبھی نہیں ٹھہرے گی تمہارے ہاتھ کی لکیر جگہ جگہ ٹوٹتی ہے امروز نے اپنے ہاتھ میں میرا ہاتھ پکڑ کر کہا .. . . . . "اچھا پھر ہم دونوں ایک ہی لکیر پر گزارا کر لیں گے"

( رسیدی ٹکٹ سے اقتباس صفحہ نمبر 79 )

Start reading this book will not let the reader leave the book until it is finished. Amrita’s life is like a fairy tale that did not have a happy ending.

Also read this: Book review of Ghaddar (غدار ) Novel written by Karshan Chandar,,,, Review by Dr Shazia Kanwal