The second and fourth covers are Amrita Pritam books; namely “Aakhri Khat” and “Naagmani”. Amrita Pritam is one of the most prolific Punjabi poets till date, and a lot of her work revolves around the partition of the subcontinent (she used to live in what is now Lahore, and crossed the border during Independence), and feminism; like many authors in India in the years right after independence, she wrote in a very distinct romantic-progressivist style, and was beloved on both sides of the border.
These covers had to have been done by Inderjeet Imroz; he is a painter and was her lover of 40 years. He’s also the man who Amrita ran “Naagmani” the magazine with. (The book inherits its name from it.)
This article here talks a little bit about them, with a photo of Imroz standing by some of his work. Amrita was his muse for as long as he’s painted.
They met through Amrita looking for someone to design her book covers. He fell in love with her almost instantly, and remembering her book “Doctor Dev”, in which she described her perfect dream of a man, he once gave her call, said “I am your Doctor Dev speaking” and then hung up. He didn’t tell her until a decade later when she was complaining about prank calls that it was him.
Before Amrita died, she wrote a poem called “Main Tenu Phir Milaungi”, or, “I Will Meet You Again” for him. After she died, he released a book of poems himself: “Jashn Jaari Hai”; “The Celebrations Continue”.
In it, he writes “usne jism choda, saath nahi”. She left the body, not my side.
There’s a book called “Amrita-Imroz– In the Times of Love and Longing“, compiling all their letters to each other. If you can read gurmukhi or shahmukhi, I suggest checking out the original Punjabi versions. If you can’t, they’ve been translated into English if you wish to read them.
Amrita Pritam was incredible, and her work is absolutely worth reading. Punjab and the subcontinent loved her for a reason. And these book covers were born out of a love that’s become legend, which is so nice to think about.
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