Dr. DALIP KAUR TIWANA

                 Whenever you visit Panjabi University of Patiala, near guest house and at the end of many kothis, you will see a house full of novels and short stories. Even if you enter in without ringing a bell, you will see a little curbed literary lady full of words cheerfully greeting you. She is Dr. Dalip Kaur Tiwana a universally regarded as one of the leading Punjabi novelists of today who has published twenty seven novels, seven collections of short stories, the first part of her autobiography and a literary biography. She has won awards, both regional and national, and is widely translated author.

                Short after our visit, a renowned Entomologist Dr Swai Singh entered in with his wife and greeted her. During tea break he asked Dr Tiwana, which is your birth place. She said  Pind Rabbon ji. Dr Swai Singh again said accha ji tusi Rabbon ho (from God). The room was full with laughter.

            She was telling that the woman writers of today do not understand the difference between revolt and deviation. They talk of revolt as a means of taking a step forward but do not know whether it will benefit their cause or not. Writers have made literature a system through which they justify their own views. There should be a fine balance between action and contemplation. Literature has become a means through which personal ambitions of money, property and promotions are achieved.

Another thing that afflicts our society is the end of role models. We no longer have people of substance, which has demoralised the coming generation. Culturally we have become orphans, with the family set-up breaking, she told. It is due to this degeneration of culture that we get this shabby treatment. The need of the hour is the protection of the soul for which the entire world can be sacrificed, she was telling like a story.

             Getting first class first M.A., and in 1963, the first woman in the region to get the Ph.D. degree from Punjab University. Dr.Tiwana joined the Punjabi University at Patiala, as a Lecturer and then went on to become Professor and Head of the Department of Punjabi and Dean, Faculty of Languages thus she had a distinguished academic career. She was a brilliant teacher and researcher and made significant contributions to literary and critical studies in Punjabi. She was also a UGC National Lecturer for a year. Born on May 4, 1935 in district Ludhiana in a well-to-do land-owing family, she was educated at Patiala where her uncle, Sardar Sahib Sardar Tara Singh Sidhu was Inspector General of Prisons.

           I have faced problems because I am a woman. When I entered the field of literature, there were few women in it. However, I was fortunate to get good guides. I write one novel a year and complete the work itself in five days after the idea comes to my mind. I took to Punjabi after my teacher, Pritam Singh, read out my test report in which I got two marks out of a total of 10. I felt instigated enough to say I would come first and started working even harder after the death of my uncle, who had adopted me, a short while later. I eventually stood first in the class she told.

 In 1961, with the publication of her first book of short stories Sadhna, Dr.Tiwana's literary career as a creative writer commenced. The Department of Languages, Government of Punjab declared Sadhna as the best book in its genre. Before switching over to novel-writing, she produced seven collections of short stories in which art-form she was destined to achieve great eminence. In 1972, her second novel Eho Hamara Zeewana won her the Sahitya Akademy Award. Thereafter, virtually every one of her works won her an award. The Ministry of Education and Social Welfare honoured her book of stories for children called pa11jan IJiCh Parmeshwar in 1975, while the Department of Languages, Government of Punjab, conferred the "Nanak Singh Puruskar" on her novel Peele Patian di Dastan in 1980 and "Gurmukh Singh Mu safir Puruskar" on her autobiography Nange pa rion da Safar in 1982.

            Awards and honours have flowed from outside the Punjab as well in to kothi No.13 many times. The International Association of Punjabi Artists and Authors (IAAPA) based in Canada honoured her with an award in 1985. "Nanjanagudu Thirumalamba" award for her novel Katha Kuknoos Di came from Shashwathi, Karnataka and in 1998"Vagdevi" award for Duni Suhava Bagh was given by Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad, Calcutta.

In 1987, for her outstanding contribution to Punjabi literature, Dr. Tiwana received the "Shiromani Sahityakar" award from the Punajb Government, the "Best Novelist of the Decade" award from Punjabi Academy, Delhi, in 1994 and the "Kartar Singh Dhaliwal" award from Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana. On the occasion of the Tricentenary Celebrations of the Birth of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib  in 1999, She was among the distinguished Sikh personalities who were honoured.

                Doordarshan has also telecast a few serials based on her writings. Many of Dr.Tiwana's short stories and novels have been translated into Hindi and other Indian languages, and English. Such is her Fate (Punjabi University), Journey on bare feet (Orient Longman), Gone are the Rivers (Macmillan) are some of the English translations, which are readily available. The Tale of the Phoenix (Ajanta) translated by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh and Bhupinder Singh and Elizabeth Siler of the USA will soon be out. Urvaslu is being rendered into English by Prof Jasbir Jain. Khushwant Singh, Jai Rattan and Danielle Gill from Paris are some the other translators of Dr. Tiwana's works.

Doordarshan has also telecast a few serials based on her writings. Doordarshan has also telecast a few serials based on her writings. She has played important roles in distinguished bodies, both academic and literary. Currently, she is associated with the Sahitya Academy (Delhi), Punjab Arts Council (Chandigarh), Punjab Sahit Academy (Chandigarh), Punjabi Sahit Academy (Ludhiana), National Book Trust of India, Bhartiya Janapith, K K. Birla Folmdation, Kendn Punjabi Lekhak Sabha in various capacities. She is President of the Punjabi Sahit Academy, Chandigarh and Life-Fellow auld nominated Senator of the Punjabi University.

Dr.Tiwana has moved from a preoccupation with gender issues to intellectual contemplation of fundamental human problem over the years, and from there to spiritual transcendence. While negotiating the problems of life and death, tradition and modernity, men and women, towns and villages in her works, she remains committed to the Indian spiritual and ethical vision. One could say of her that she combines European energy with Asiatic calm in her life and thought.

She visited several countries to preside over or participate in important international conferences during the course of her career as writer and academician. She chaired sessions at the International Punjabi Conference held in U.K. in 1980, participated in International Writing Together anal Women in the 20th Century held in Scotland in 1990 and in 2000, presided over an international literary meet organised by California Sahit Sabha in the U.S.A..

                        There is thematic and formal variety in her writings. Her language in particular is spontaneous, lyrical and compressed to the point of being a marvel of economy and elegance. Dr.Tiwana is the leading, most productive and most popular Punjabi novelist of our Ages by common or general consent. She has been engaged in creative writing without any major interruption for the last forty years or more. She also presented me with a novel and gave us a snap.                          

              *The author is a noted poet and a Scientist writer, at Sydney, Australia.

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