This is the story of Padma Sachdev who, undoubtedly, was the much discussed poet of the Dogra heartland of Jammu, during the period sixties to the eighties. She continued her stardom right up to the early nineties.
Padma Baru was a lucky girl. She was born on 17 April 1940, on the banks of holy river Devika in Purmandal, in Samba district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Purmandal is considered as holy as Kashi ( also called Banaras and Varanasi ), the city of Bhagwan Shiv. We call Purmandal Chhoti Kashi ( Mini Kashi). Her father, Jai Dev Baru was a Sanskrit scholar whom she lost to the communal riots during the partition of the British India, in 1947.
The family eventually moved to Jammu. Padma became interested in writing poems in her mother tongue Dogri. At the tender and slippery age of 16 years, she recited a poem at a mushaira in the city of temples, Jammu. Her poem was highly appreciated by the audience ( it included the chief minister of the erstwhile state ). The poem had revolutionary and sarcastic tones in essence and moved the people. They loved to recite the poem that became the talk of the town.
Growing up in the same city of Jammu was a young poet called Ved Pal Deep. He was a well known columnist and also edited a newspaper called “Sandesh”. The next day, her poem was splashed in this Urdu newspaper. Thereby began a new chapter in the annals of the fast paced love stories of Jammu and Kashmir. Rest, as they say, is history.
The poetess was attracted to the young and handsome poet who was also one of the most eligible bachelors in the Dograland. A love affair ensued between the two poets of substance. Shortly afterwards, this handsome communist, editor and poet married the young poetess.
Hers was the most talked about love story of the last century Jammu. It had a lyrical beginning, but a tragic ending. The ladylove here was a beautiful young girl, in the middle of her teens who was fond of writing poems in her mother tongue Dogri.
Even before the celebrations really got over, the poetess was discovered to be a patient of TB (tuberculosis ). In those days, TB was considered a much dreaded disease, many a time, untreatable. Padma was soon shunted to a sanatorium in the valley of Kashmir.
Shortly, after her return to normalcy of health, friction developed between the couple, and the lady sought a divorce soon thereafter. This enthusiastic love story eventually turned tragic, rather too soon.
Their marriage was short lived. It lasted less than eight years, and the couple agreed to a divorce. Like their marriage, their divorce was also talk of the town. It gave the close knit society of the Dogras fodder to chew on for years.
Padma claimed she was neglected and also blamed alcoholism of Deep as reasons for seeking the divorce. Deep found Padma too ambitious. In moments of emotional turmoil, Deep once confided in me that Padma was over ambitious : she wanted to achieve name, fame and stardom in a short span of time. I could not subscribe to adopting dubious and quickfix means. After the divorce, Deep felt cheated in marriage and blamed Padma for leaving him uncared for.
Real reasons for their divorce are unknown because diametrically opposite versions are available in the public domain. Many think alcoholism of Deep as the main reason for their separation.
Within two years of seeking divorce, the poetess married again. The poet felt abandoned, forlorn and dejected. He never married again, nor could he ever love another woman.
This tragic hero of Dogri poetry never forgot his love for Padma till the last day of his life. He immersed himself in alcohol. Whenever he emerged from the sea of sadness and alcohol, he penned some of the most endearing ghazals ever written in Dogri language.
Contemporaries, and competitors of Padma Sachdev, estranged wife of celebrated Dogri poet Ved Pal Deep were rather unkind to her talent as a poetess.
Unmindful of the criticism and social malice, Padma marched on relentless. In times to come, she wrote for magazines of repute, continued with her literary journey and eventually earned a Sahitya Akademi Award.
During the 60s and the 70s, in the literary circles of Jammu, especially the ones belonging to Dogri literature, rumours were afloat that the swan song of Padma Baru “ae raje diyaan mandiaan tundiaan ne ” (do these palatial forts really belong to you) was, in fact, written by her husband Ved Pal Deep ! Both husband and wife, for whatever time they remained in the wedlock, were acknowledged poets of their times.
After divorce from the poet husband, she married Sardar Surinder Singh, a classical vocalist of Singh Bandhu duo fame, who was also an income tax officer.
Her husband’s position and post helped her move in the high society of Mumbai. She moved with the elite. She befriended top journalists, singers, artists, writers and the lot. Especially, she close to renowned Hindi literatteur and editor Dharmvir Bharti and Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar.
She eventually, succeeded in getting Lata Mangeshkar to sing four Dogri songs for HMV ( music label His Master’s Voice ). The small vinyl record containd two of her own songs. It was like a cultural coup of those days. And , she liked every bit of the attention it brought to her.
During my days in Jammu, right upto the middle of the eighties, I had not met her personally. She did not know who I was. I had known her younger brother Gyaneshwar who was a thorough gentleman, a good cricketer, a well known poet and a successful engineer. We were good friends. We lost him a few months ago, in Jammu.
After my marriage with Seema (famed singer Seema Anil Sehgal), I had several and well spread personal meetings of the family kind with her ; first in Jammu, followed by Delhi and finally in Mumbai where we settled. Seema introduced her to me as an aunt of hers. Padma Ji was a sister to my father -in-law Yash Sharma, the famed broadcaster and the acknowledged Prince of Songs. Like Padma, he too is a Sahitya Akademi Award winner.
Padma Ji always used to address me as “jawaii raja”, meaning the dear son-in-law, as I touched her feet, each time we met. She was a talented poet we all know, and she instinctively could spot talent in others. Therefore, she had a special place in her heart for Seema and her enormous talent and popularity. That is where lied the hitch.
By nature, Padma was a narcissist. She was conscious of her huge and varied talents. In a gathering or a poetic soiree, she would strive to hog all the lime light ; seldom she permitted others to showcase their talents and enjoy the applause. So on one side, she would love to acknowledge Seema’s huge talent, but, at the same time, she would like to disregard her fame and popularity in music ! This was the case of a silent kind of disregard she developed towards her.
But, again, from time to time, she would call Seema and schedule meetings with her. She would always ask her to bring along the “jawaii raja”. She invariably expected and insisted that we visit her; our requests that she should come over to us were politely and dexterously side-lined.
But, we never had any issues with her behaviour or attitude. We acknowledged and applauded her talents and accepted her the way she was. We gratefully accepted the warmth of her love whenever she chose to pour it. On a personal level, I always liked to meet and interact with her. She was warm and affectionate towards me.
Padma always projected herself as the sole representative of the Dogras, especially their art, culture and literature. She would like the world to acknowledge her as the only ambassador of Dogri language and culture. She would brook no opposition and competition in this regard. We had no objection to it. So, the relationship and its warmth continued to soothe both the parties. Seema Anil Sehgal has composed and sung many songs of Padma Sachdev who left the mortal world on 4 August 2021, aged 81.
Several awards bestowed on her include Sahitya Akademi Award in 1971, a Padma Shri in 2001, Kabir Samman for poetry for the year 2008, Saraswati Samman for the year 2015, and, finally a Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2019, which is the highest literary honour given by the Government of India.
All her life, she was always living in controversies. Her competitors and contemporaries were not kind to her. They were jealous that she hobnobbed with the who-is-who in the media and enjoyed the limelight. She won awards that were mired in jealousies and contentions. But, regardless, she marched on. I would say : Bravo Padma Ji ! You had the courage to live your life on your own terms and forced the world to accept them !
Padma certainly was the much discussed poetess of her times in the Dogra heartland of Jammu. Thanks to her gregarious personality, traumatic first marriage with legendary Dogri poet Ved Pal Deep, her closeness to the celebrities like Lata Mangeshkar, Padma Ji will be remembered as an integral part of the contemporary Dogri folklore.
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