Vishav Bharti
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 8
Shiv Batalvi's love poems have inspired generations, but who inspired him, Punjab has wondered all this while. The answer finally struggles to come out in the death of Anusuya Singh, writer-publisher Gurbaksh Singh Preetlari's youngest daughter, who passed away in Venezuela on Sunday at 84.
A post about the love affair between Anusuya and Shiv on Facebook page ‘Kitab Trinjan’ has opened many lesser-known pages of the poet's life. Even during her last visit to India, Anusuya visited Shiv's family in Patiala.
The social media post claims that she was the poet's first love. "Anusuya had an affair with Shiv, as claimed by the poet, and that her father did not approve of it. But it was always refuted by some members of her family as more of a myth created by the poet."
Her family is now divided over the issue. Anusuya's nephew's wife, Poonam Singh, who is now the editor of ‘Preetlari’ magazine, denies that Gurbaksh opposed the marriage between Shiv and Anusuya. "Anu had spoken to me at length about all these things. She was asked by her father if she wanted to marry Shiv, to which she said no. Then he told her that she must study further. Anu told me that she could not see herself as Shiv’s wife. She was not even 20 when her first husband committed suicide."
Poonam says till her last days she made it a point to look at a star saying that was Shiv, and during her last visit to India she asked them to accompany her to meet his family in Patiala.
"She talked to me in detail about the passion. I will say this in her defence that she was a passionate person. So too are many men. Why does a woman have to be punished for eternity? No, Shiv did not create a myth, but should have been more sporting perhaps...definitely he was hurt and felt bad."
Poonam writes that Gurbaksh always stood by all his daughters. "Even the eldest confided to me. He may not have wanted the eldest to get married to a Muslim and leave India. There were other things too. His daughter Protima married a Hindu Bengali Communist and daughter Urmila married Communist Jagjit Singh Anand, again an inter-caste love marriage."
Commenting on the post, Sukirat Anand, nephew of Anusuya’s (her elder sister Urmila's son), says, "She did not have a passionate affair with Shiv; it was more a myth created by Shiv. And I say this with some authority as in 2003 I had a long chat with her about this. I have no reason to doubt her version as she was a frank person with Western sensibilities."
Taught English in Venezuela
Most of her life, Anusuya taught English at Merida University in Venezuela. She was from the first batch of the Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University of Russia (PFU) in 1960. The PFU was established in 1960 to provide higher education to Third World students. In university, she fell in love with Raul Jesus Estevez Laprea, who was then studying physics. In 1965, they moved to Venezuela. Both taught at Merida University.
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