Narenderpal Singh, how to introduce him, a colonel, a defense attaché, an embassy man, an adviser and a secretary, a journalist, a university Senate member, a Sahitya Akademi award winner; a cosmopolitan,  global visitor, a tourist and a traveler? A globe-trotter, he is a Punjabi writer as well as has written in English too. He is one who edited Byword for so long. To read his poetry is to have the draught of global partnership and cosmopolitan worldview.  Such a thing is in Romen Basu’s poetry too. So is in Vikram Seth’s poetry.

Born at Lyallpur in Punjab under British India on 17 October 1923, he served the armed forces from 1942 with his assignment in West Asia during the World War II, as a military attaché in embassies later on and as Military Secretary to the President of India from 1962-1966 and retired from the rank of the Brigadier in 1972. His book Baa Mulahaza Hoshiar got the Sahitya Akademi Award in Punjabi 1976 from the Govt. of India. Narenderpal Singh’s wife Prabhjot Kaur too was a Padma Sri awardee writer for Punjabi. Their two daughters, Nirupama was married to Harinder Singh, son of Hukam Singh, speaker of Parliament and Anupama to latter-day Indian Army Chief J.J. Singh.

To read the poem is to feel the urge of visiting the spot, to remind of the famous Niagara Falls which we read in our books of general knowledge and geography. The common people just read about, but he had the opportunity of visiting and he has recorded his impressions. The wonder lies in his expressions. The Niagara Falls itself does the rounds. What can be more scenic than this natural scenery and landscape so heavenly and full of splendor?  

The problem of Narenderpal Singh is this that starting from Niagara he switches to his beloved and her beauty which he never tires of seeing, never tires of admiring and appreciating and the beauty is as seen by Tennyson in The Beggar Maid and the girl seeking for alms in Katherine Mansfield’s A Cup of Tea. Narenderpal Singh betrays it with his poetry as he should have kept it restricted to the Niagara Falls. He could have visited it with his ladylove, but what will the students learn from seeing the Niagara in his love?  A young girl and Niagara, how will it look like?

Narenderpal is getting photographed with his ladylove, quite in a romantic pose before the waterfalls. Maybe he is comparing the beauty of it with that of his beloved’s.

When did he see? How did he feel then? When he saw the Falls and when he saw the girl at first, how did he feel about it? How was his experience of seeing Niagara solely, gain the Niagara with the girl and for the third time feeling it in her?

But Niagara Falls as a poem is independent of, the way you take to, as it is a poem of the scenic  beauty of the falls and also a seeing of the young partner he is with, be it she anyone. Romance is the whiskey, rum of love.

Niagara Falls is but heaven’s beauty, nature’s beauty and the mystery around it is scenic, landscapic. How the source of water? How is it like? Bluish and pearly, crystal-clear water flowing under the white skies, vast expanses, how lovely is it the sight and scenery!

The poem is like the three visits Wordsworth pays to the landscape in Tintern Abbey, a semi-autobiographical poem in which there is a story of spiritual progression. There is also something of Lucy poems in it. But what progression is it in this poem the reader can say it.

To read him is to think of the world shrunken to a globe and we the members of the global village visiting different villages, enjoying exotic recipes and dishes. His protagonist is a shopping mall mannequin, a showroom one. A florist girl, a flight attendant seems to be his character, but their stresses he has felt it not.

The Niagara Falls

When I first saw it
I was wonderstruck.
Yes, what a wonder--
wonder on earth.

When I saw the Niagara Falls again
I was wonderstruck, true,
but pensive—
where does it flow from
where does it go
how much
how big
how long shall it last—
and a thousand questions
which have no answer.

When I saw it again and again
I was prayer itself.
No questions
nor answers
a sense of just being naught
a zero---
like man
in His creation.

Today I see you
my friend
like Niagara Falls
as I saw it last.

Words, wonders,
thoughts, ideas,
earthly profundity
godly truths
godly secrets
flow out of your mind
your lips!

Vast expanses
countless Milky Ways
universe after universe
shapes itself and vanishes---
you, dear friend,
are the Niagara Falls.

But whatever he says, we are here to see Niagara Falls, not to see him with the beloved, getting photographed. The joy of visiting Niagara with the beloved he is sharing with. We do not know who she was with him? Who accompanied her to there? Or he is feeling it far from the Niagara.

Image (c) istock.com