The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetstone of ideas. — Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
The daily meeting and sharing of ideas is on at Sanjhi Sath
– a shared space, a village meeting place. First half of the day this little
corner at Singhu tractor trolley township is a nursery - full of little
children, from nearby shanties, playing, drawing, learning to read and write – a
place where the seeds for ideas are planted. Every evening it turns a whetstone
- for two hours farmers, volunteers, elderly, young, grown trees and young
saplings, all shades gather here, ideas gather here, and the sword is
sharpened.
Rajwant Kaur is sharing her story. A young and upcoming
lyricist and singer, when she discussed her song ‘Bhagat Singh tera maqsad lokin
bhulde jane ne’ ‘Bhagat Singh, masses are slowly forgetting your purpose,’ the
music director told her that if she wants to become popular, she should sing on
popular themes, revolutionaries and their ideas don’t sell anymore.
Today, sitting opposite young Rajwant, two meters away, is
Gurjit Kaur Dhatt, 68years old niece of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Rajwant begins to
choke up. ‘We have grown up reading Bhagat Singh. But to meet his blood in
person, as part of a revolution… ’ She starts crying. The words stop. The
revolutionary fervor, the idea spreads. In its powerful silence, it takes in
the gathering at Sanjhi Sath, it engulfs the tractor trolley township, and it
reaches out to the nation.
After she has composed herself and after she had reassured
the gathering and more so her own very self that she will keep her words true
to her soul, on request of the gathering she sings for everyone. ‘Jaag ja
Punjabiya, sambhal jimmevariyan.’
His legacy lives on. New legacies sprout from the seeds he
planted.
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