‘Kashmir Images’ reference to be a part of singer Talat Mahmood’s Biography
Rashmi Talwar
AMRITSAR 26TH November 2022—
Sahar Zaman, TEDx speaker, award-winning TV journalist- anchor, and curator of music platform Jashn-e-Talat, is currently penning the biography of her grand-uncle Talat Mahmood. The yesteryears singer with a golden voice, the inimitable Talat Mahmood was referred to in an article carried by “Kashmir Images” on 15th August 2022 Titled –“Lady who saw the first Indian PM crying copious tears …” by Rashmi Talwar, the article was in the sequential stream of articles celebrating 75-years of India’s Independence, from British rule.
The newspaper write-up was an eyewitness account of nonagenarian Reena Chhibber Varma (90), who watched the momentous occasion of the presence of four of India’s greatest singers on stage during the celebration of the Republic Day Cultural program in the year 1963. “It was held only a few months after India’s debacle in the Sino-India war of 1962, just after the Republic Day parade. The culture fare had become a ritual of a newly carved free nation, where the nation’s top performing artists were invited for an evening of performances, for foreign dignitaries and top personalities of the nation, in an auditorium, in close proximity to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.
Among the greats that Reena witnessed that day, were Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor, and Talat Mahmood. “Talat Mahmood then sang – ‘Hungama’e gumm se tang aa kar…’ Talat was my favourite, although I am a singer myself, but Talat’s style was hard to replicate. I still am an ardent fan of Talat’s songs”, adds Reena, who claimed to have met Talat a number of times and to date even has his framed photograph hanging in her home in Pune.
This historic moment of January 1963 is known for the patriotic song– “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo… Zara Aankh Mei Bhar Lo Pani” sung by Lata Mangeshkar, which drove the first Indian PM Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru to tears, amidst the public; so pained was he, at the loss of India and its soldiers in the war with China. “The wounds of war and loss were too raw and the song was extremely moving” described Reena, who recalled that the entire stadium was in tears along with PM Nehru. “It was a heartrending spectacle of raw pain.”
Referring to this article which she found on the internet, Sahar wrote to this writer – “I am writing to you ‘with reference to Mrs. Reena Chhibber. I have read some delightful pieces written about her in “Kashmir Images Newspaper”. In one of them, she mentions the Republic Day cultural show of 1963, where great singers -Lata Mangeshkar, Talat Mahmood, and Mohammed Rafi performed. I am currently writing my grand-uncle Talat Mahmood’s biography”.
On this writer’s request to carry the reference of the newspaper’s article as a source for one of the greatest incidents in India’s nascent history, where her uncle Talat Mahmood too sang in front of the first PM of the country, in her book – Sahar responded- “Absolutely! I have mentioned your publication (Kashmir Images) because you were a Godsent”.
Udtaa Punjab: Posters on drugs alarms Amritsar- Border city presumably becoming frontrunner as drug capital of North India
Rashmi Talwar
AMRITSAR 31st October 2022——
“Chitta ethe Milda Hai..” “Chitta- (the deadly white powder, a crude form of heroin) is available here”. This line on a poster at Chowk Moni area of Amritsar, in Punjabi script, sent shivers down the spine of residents. A video of this became viral in nanoseconds.
The resident of the narrow lanes of Chowk Moni who filmed the drug posters, says on camera –“I was returning from Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh, and was shell-shocked to see posters- like an advertisement of an outlet- selling deadly drugs. When I passed this area around 1.45 am, to visit the Sikh shrine, at that time, there was no such poster. ”
However, the videographer in his hurry failed to notice the finer print “Valon:Ujraya hoya parivar”- (From: A ruined family) below. At first glance, the poster seems to have been created on a home printer. Dozens of these posters were seen stuck on closed shutters of many shops and walls in the wee hours of the morning.
The video that was shared like wildfire has led to a scurrying hurry by the administration to take cognizance of the issue in the area.
This is the first time posters, however crude, have appeared with the message of selling drugs although, they were not meant for selling, rather a cry of family and seemed aimed at creating public awareness about the massive issue of destruction of families, from drugs sold in close proximity of Gurdwara area.
The appearance of posters sent shock waves. While the administration was seen dashing for damage control by pointing it as the pain of a lone affected family. Experts say -the protest against drugs by an affected family may seem on the surface like a cry in the wilderness but it holds a higher connotation. The poster is symbolic of a new mode of broadcasting for drugs, even as the administration has been sleeping for years on the rampant rise of drug abuse in the border city of Amritsar, that are witnessing daily drone dropping drugs, presumably from across the border in Pakistan, in quantities of kilograms instead of gramme, worth multi-crores in the international markets.
Alongside this, administrative watchers are seeing the poster assault, as a novel trend, a bold new openness about drug consuming, selling, and peddling. The new means also provides inroads, ideas, and avenues for mischievous elements to use posters, with coded messages to sell and buy drugs. Experts fear the new development is similar to the ‘dark web’ like emergence, – a covert virtual world of illegal activity. But unlike the virtual world, this illegal market would be on ground zero.
Lately, videos highlighting the rampant prevalence of drug abuse in Amritsar are becoming a daily feature, raising fears of the city emerging as a topper in drug dealing and consumption.
From Drone dropping drugs to drug racket running from jails, Punjab is on the brink of the great fall, even as the politicians-police nexus in the past have tried every trick to hide the alarming issue. From denial, and feigning ignorance to partnering in the lucrative crime; the accusations fly past them from the public to no avail.
Meantime, following the poster video, police has asked residents to provide clues to them, which has become a joke amongst the public, who say the police themselves are in cahoots with peddlers, drug traffickers and their kingpins. Peddlers throng schools and places of worship where many worshippers come with issues and problems and many young and vulnerable victims fall in the trap of drugs.
A number of videos are trending lately on social media, especially of women drug addicts lolling on streets in an intoxicated stupor. The video of a newly married girl caught on camera injecting herself with drugs and walking in an intoxicated limpness, in a notorious locality of Chhabal, Amritsar where drug addiction is rampant, triggered the trend of shooting and broadcasting videos of addicts. What raised the heckles was that the girl was wearing bright red and white “choora bangles” a symbol of a newlywed amongst Hindus and Sikhs. This led to a flood of videos of addicts. Videos emerging from the infamous ‘locality of widows’ – Maqboolpura – an area where most male members have succumbed to drugs and died and the majority of women are left widows fighting a twin battle with their sons and now daughters too, following in the footsteps of their father, into the dark gallows of drugs.
Two girls sitting in an auto rickshaw with veiled faces are seen begging for help to shun the dragon that has clasped them in its deadly claws, in another video, showing needle marks in various parts of the body on camera where they had injected drugs.
A few months back a village elder along with panchayat members in a live video, broke open the lock of a three-storied palatial home in a Punjab village which had turned to ruins as all three surviving members had turned into addicts including a mother and her two sons. The once splendid home was shorn off all grills in the house which are generally installed on widows and staircases besides grills on the terrace were cut and sold for the daily drug fix of the tri-some. The house had nothing. Even doors, and windows were uprooted and sold and addicts were now trying to pull out doorframes and window frames fixed in walls. Even taps were uprooted and all metal in the house was sold.
Another set of long-range videos of ‘Jora Phatak area’ broadcast rampant druggies near railway lines in Amritsar. Where addicts were seen running, after, seeing people chasing and video graphing them. A video of Amritsar jail premises, where addicts were injecting drugs went viral with the suspension of many senior officials including wardens and deputy Jail superintendent, and others. Huge hauls of cell phones, cigarette bundles, and quantities of drugs some in ‘Pooris’ (packs) were sold to inmates.
Many of the local videographers who posted videos on social networking sites are seen challenging the Deputy Commissioners and Police Commissioners of the area questioning them- ‘If they didn’t know where the drugs were beings sold, wherefrom they entered, who were the racketeers and where are the seized drugs being pilfered. Where are you sitting ?’ They also questioned the administration over their laxity in hauling up police personnel in cahoots with drug racketeers. In a cry of pain and anger, they are seen calling out -“Don’t you know how you are ruining the wombs of Punjab? Humankind will never forgive nor spare you for indulging in this deadly game or turning a blind eye to this horrifying monster,” they are seen cursing, as the once robust Punjabi youth is increasingly falling into the dark, deep, deathly abyss of drugs.
Rashmi Talwar Saanjh-Togetherness 
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