Pilgrimage of a writer
By Jasmine Singh
Every journey has a purpose, which gives a perspective to life. Also, the journey that we embark never ends, even after we are gone from the face of earth. The soul remains, and takes on a yet another journey. Writer Kamla Kapur (born Kamaljit Kaur Kapur) is also on a pilgrimage to discover the deeper meaning of life. She tries to get there with Pilgrimage To Paradise, Sufi Tales from Rumi, released at a function organised by Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi on Saturday.
On a spiritual journey of submission, surrendering herself, falling in love with ‘Rumi’ was natural for Kamla. “I heard Rumi’s name while I was growing up,” says the winner of two national awards in 1977. “The moment came, when I moved into my husband, Payson Steven’s house shortly before our marriage. There, I saw three volumes of the Mathnawi in his library.
I was hooked on to from the first line I read. And so I began another journey, ‘the way’ as the Sufis call.” Adds the writer, “Rumi was a total human being who expressed humaneness through love, pain and submission. We must understand that each one of us are the central characters of our journey, and there is more to what meets the eye.”
In Pilgrimage to Paradise, Kamla reworks Rumi’s writings into 30 tales of wit, wisdom and faith. “I can’t write without making the story mine. Writing is an experience of an incident that rings a bell and brings in that ‘aha’ moment, wherein you want readers to experience what you have,” puts in this author of Ganesha Goes To Lunch. “Indian myths have a deeper spiritual meaning,” she smiles, “and I don’t want anyone to follow them without challenging and experiencing them on their own. This helps to discover truth for one’s own self as well. In the end, I feel experience is more important than any philosophy or religion.”
Back to the fountainhead of existence, ‘love’. “Believes Kamla, who divides her time living in India and California where she is on the faculty of the Grossmont College in San Diego, “Sufism has a big audience in India as it sends out the universal message of love that resonates in all human beings irrespective of caste, colour and creed. Besides, Sufi music has also helped in the popularity of Sufism.”
No wonder, you have youngsters picking Brian Weiss, Paulo Coelho, Richard Bach from the shelves. ” Fame, money, name, family, career, everything is important to us, but we also need to find out the deeper meaning connected to our soul. This meaning connects to us to different souls in the universe.”
jasmine@tribunemail.com
Appeared on Tribune
Posted by kamla Oct 6th 2009
