These five lines in her very first anthology of Marathi poems, Joginderkaur Mahajan bring to fore a fine mind that reacts and responds to life’s bliss and blight in short expressions that often leave the reader asking for more. This anthology -- Rund-Arund (Broad-Narrow) -- won her Maharashtra Government’s literary award. It also fetched for her a couple of other honours. And a generation of young writers came up trying to emulate her style -- crisp but not emotionally bereft. Crisp and emotion-filled expressions are Joginderkaur Mahajan’s speciality. With so many titles to her credit, Joginderkaur Mahajan became a well known name in literary circles.

 

Her name did perplex a few -- Joginderkaur. But then, she was a Punjabi woman -- having been born in undivided India in Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) -- and was very proud of being one. But languages were her forte. She excelled not just in Punjabi, but also in Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit and English. So significant was her contribution to Marathi literature that most people missed the strangeness of her first name and took Joginderkaur as Maharashtrian.

 

The most important part of her personality was the manner in which she encouraged her students to understand the critical part the language occupied in life. She often told young people, in effect, that if they mastered language -- any language and learned its fine nuances, life would become more rewarding. Indirectly thus, her literary forays also had a missionary flair -- to promote a genuine interest of young generations in the languages. ‘Each fine expression enhances one’s personality’, she said in a speech. That became Joginderkaur’s innate style, showing itself so captivatingly in all her literary works that fetched her many honours across the board.

 

The finesse of expression also came from her deep understanding of philosophy as a way of not thought but of life. When she acquired a Ph.D. in Philosophy, it marked only one milestone in her journey. For Dr Joginderkaur Mahajan, conducting life on deep philosophical constructs was the most natural thing to happen. Born in Gujranwala, Joginderkaur was slated to meet Jagjit Singh Mahajan in Nagpur where she was working. They made fine life-partners, converting a Punjabi household into a multi-lingual entity. All her life’s experiences -- good, bad and indifferent -- reflect so wonderfully and fully in her two anthologies of Marathi poems and two of Hindi poems.