Punjabi Poems of Amrita Pritam

This book is a good attempt by Star Publishers to bring the punjabi poems of Amrita Pritam nearer to those unfamiliar with her work as well as those not knowing punjabi. It is also a great service to the young generation as well. The paper used is of very good quality and printing is good. Overall packaging is quite attractive. Such attempts from publications are very welcome.The translation by Khushwant Singh is competent for the most part though he does re-interpret some things occasionally. In the transliterated versions there are some mistakes and in some cases, the punjabi titles don't match the transliterated ones. For example the punjabi poem on page 144 titled Aadi smriti in the transliterated version becomes Aadi Vidhaan. The punjabi poem Aadi Sangeet on page 132 becomes Pahili Dhun in transliterated version. These and more cases are avoidable.The reason that I have cut one star is that some of the pages are missing. Page 64 is missing (thus the gurumukhi version of Saal Mubarak is not there). Page 60 and 61 are also missing due to which Gurumukhi version of Dagh is missing (along with the translation). Pages 49,52,53, 56 and 57 are also missing similarly with some poems or their translations/transliterations.

Yes, she was a progressive writer and yes, some of her poems are exceptional.The Hindi translations in the book are pathetic, since I can read Gurmukhi (very slow though) I though reading in Hindi will make it quicker but then that's the problem, Hindi translator did not do a good job.I would recommend, read the ones written in Gurmukhi. A lot is lost in translation.

Nice one