Waris Shah

After countless nights of listening the track Waris Shah (Pinjar OST), my former roommate Ranjit and I had several arguments on what it actually meant.

As a background to people unfamiliar with the track or the movie, I suggest you should watch the movie once. Pinjar is the only movie after Tamas that has ever potrayed problems of partition in a true sense. Many movies have shown people walking across borders in 1947, but none actually highlighted what actually happened on the journey. Hindus and Muslims took equal turns to inflict an orgy of murders, looting and rape to their respective counterparts. Whether it was in Amritsar or Lahore, the impact of lives of migrants will always be the same. How India became Hindustan is yet another story that you should consider investigating through the eyes of Khushwant Singh or Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
I am neither a Desh Bhakt not a fanatic hindustan-fundamentalist. I just enjoyed listening to the track Waris Shah for the calm music it is composed in. For the first few times, I just though it to be yet another punjabi ballet, till Ranjit once cried his heart out to explain me what it actually means. So after reading few books I finally came across this verse and its translation.

Heer-Ranjha by Waris Shah
Aj aakhaan Waris Shah noo
Uth kabaraan vichoon bol;
Ik roee see dhee punjab dee
Taun likh likh maarey vain
Aj lakhaan dheeaan rondian
Tainee Warris Shah noo kehan
O, dardmandaan day dardeeya uth tak apna Punjab
Beyley laashan vicchiyaan, lahoo da bharya chenab

I ask Warris Shah to rise from your grave and speak
When one daughter of Punjab Wept
You wrote a string of lamentations
Today a hundred thousands are in tears
Plead with you as they cry
O, comforter of the suffering, come and see your Punjab
Corpses are strewn about the fields, blood flows in the Chenab