Sir,
Apropos article “Dogra Angst” DE of May 31st authored by Manu Khajuria.
After many years someone has come forward to promote Dogra culture. Hats off to the author for beautifully explaining the cause of Jammu Dogras and its ancient history. We have adopted a mix of Hindi and Punjabi language and are shy of speaking Dogri language. With all humility I for one is one of them. I recall an encounter with ” Shiv Kumar Sharma”, the Santoor King in 1991 in one of my official visit to Varanasi. While I was checking out of hotel on my way back to Delhi, the man at the reception told me “Sir we have one more guest from Jammu and is leaving for airport also and why don’t you wait for few minutes and can go together to airport ” I enquired who the gentleman was and was told about Shiv Kumar Sharma who had come for some concert. Frankly, I had not much heard about him but being from Jammu I waited. A long hair handsome man in kurta pajama came down and both of us were introduced and took a taxi to airport. Such was the feeling of being Dogras that we took seats in aircraft together. It was a long hopping flight with stopovers at Bhopal, Indore and Agra. We discussed many topics about Jammu and its rulers right from Maharaja to Governor rule to militancy engulfing the State. He had vivid memories of old Jammu town, its lanes and by lanes especially Panjtirthi Mohalla and Mubarak Mandi.
When we got down at Delhi airport saying bye I was shocked when Shiv Kumar Sharma told me “if you are a Dogra why don’ t you speak Dogri” I was so ashamed because all the time I was speaking in Hindi and him speaking in sweet Dogri. And cautioned me in lighter vein that when we meet next time I should converse in Dogri only. Such was his dedication towards Dogri tongue. Another promoters of our Dogra culture are the famous Dogri poet Padma Sachdev and the late Padam Shri Prof Ram Nath Shastri.
Yours etc….
I C Jandial
Chairman All Jandial Sabha and
Past President Lions International
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