Google honours Punjabi writer Amrita Pritam with doodle

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The search engine called her history’s foremost female Punjabi writers, who ‘dared to live the life she imagines.’

New Delhi: Google on Saturday honoured Amrita Pritam on her 100th birth anniversary with a cool doodle that references ‘Kala Gulab’ (Black Rose) the scintillating autobiography of the most prominent woman Punjabi author and poet.

The search engine called her history’s foremost female Punjabi writers, who “dared to live the life she imagines.”

Born in Gujranwala, British India, 100 years ago today, Pritam published her first collection of verse at age 16.

She is most remembered for “Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu,” her poem lamenting the traumatic 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. The work’s title translates as “I call upon Waris Shah today,” referring to the 18th-century Sufi poet Waris Shah.

Pritam published 28 novels including Pinjar, a dramatic tale set during the time of partition which was adapted into a movie later.

‘Kala Gulab’ (Black Rose), referenced in the Doodle art, reveals many details of her personal life, allowing other women to speak more openly about their experiences with love and marriage. The Doodle shows a woman, presumably Pritam dressed in a salwar suit seated cross-legged and writing.

“Known for her mastery of the Punjabi language, Pritam lived in Pakistan after Partition, but also wrote many works in Hindi and Urdu, as her work was admired on both sides of the border,” Google said.

Pritam who also worked for All-India Radio edited the literary journal Nagmani.
In 1986, she was nominated to Rajya Sabha.

Pritam died in the year 2005 and in her six-decade career, she received many prestigious awards including the Bharatiya Jnanpith in 1981 and the Padma Vibushan, in 2005.

That same year a French translation of her novel, The Skeleton, was awarded the La Route des Indes Literary Prize.