Author & Poet
Neelam M. Singh is an author of many written works, books, plays, poetry, editorials, scripts, lyrics, legal documents and much more. Her words bring to fore, the sensitivity within, pain and passion of a rebellious crusader. Her sensitive nature pierces into her poetry and literary expressions. She repudiates a trivial destiny, to make a journey into a spiritual world, in search of the light beyond. Her works have profound, passionate and immense feelings, shunning intolerance and hatred.
She aggressively defies a rotten, systemic order, clamouring for a new world order of social justice. Her columns, books, essays, lectures etc. crave for a society based on equality, humanism, with equal opportunities to all, however Utopian it may be. The Author is reactive to situations around her. It sometimes tends to be a vanguard voice against the dilapidated system, that denies citizens their rightful place in society. We are seeing the global human strife !
Neelam Mahajan Singh aka Neil, aka Neelam M. Singh, aka Neelam Singh, doesn’t have any pen name! Neelam’s poetry is accidental, transcendental and deeply in love with relationships. She reacts towards the social, economic, cultural, surroundings around her, to surge forward. Ocean of Love, comes through love, hate relationships and storms through in deep silence. Neelam’s poetic sensitivity evolves through fragmentation of events in life. The author says, “one gives one’s life, to become a person one is, through millions of invisible sacrifices. Ocean of Love directs the course of life, and feels the pain of too much tenderness.”
We are wounded by our own understanding of life, walking on the blood lined track, love is a succour and becomes a guiding light. Neelam’s literature unfolds like the petals of a lotus flower.
They give, that they may live, and the joy of loving is a reward! Isn’t it? She can’t tarry. Into her busy and hectic schedule, Neelam M. Singh manages to squeeze in, a highly productive and creative output. Her works, Ocean of Love, Tandava: Shiva’s Dance ofFury and Annihilation, Anteryatra, articles, blogs, digital social media writings, FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. reflect inner struggle of human beings. Her life is a testimony to the, trials and tribulations, that have raged around her. The Author’s tranquil poise, belies the hardships she has undergone, which if anything, have mellowed her intellect and honed her creative instincts to a fine and searing brilliance.
The Author, Neelam M. Singh says, “I’m compelled to speak and raise my voice for those, who don’t have a voice ! I am like a vivid flash of brilliant lighting, on a dark and desolate rain swept heath.” This is Journey of Life….
Neelam says: Many things I don’t understand, many things I can’t make them understand. The tenderness of a new leaf is unfazed by the strong winds, that ripened the leaf to ultimately fall, on the millions of dry, unpicked leaves. Isn’t it a viciousness of existence? My poems have invaded into this viciousness, with aggressive explosions. I go into the deep see, into high skies, all for the sake of a feeling, that has travelled through the civilizations: Love…Ocean of Love”.
“I have to interact with global personalities. I dress up to the collection of energy forms of different civilizations,” says Neelam Mahajan Singh Text & Photographs by Pomy Issar in Sunday Pioneer Plus, 8th December, 1996
OCEAN OF LOVE:
BY: NEELAM M. SINGH
Beautiful pearl in sea mollusk shell
A highly valued gem
Searching for water drops
While fully drenched
Giving much love
Yet seeking in
The Ocean of Love!
Neelam M. Singh
(Soon revised and enlarged edition of Ocean of Love)
Neelam Mahajan Singh is dedicated to the causes of humanism and women’s rights. Neelam, dedicated ‘Ocean of Love’ to: “Lajya Devi and Jaswant Rai jee, my parents, as stars watching from above and my wonderful son: Yuvraj Siddhartha Singh” (Yuvraj S. Singh)
Neelam Singh is a social justice & human rights crusader for past three decades. She’s a multifaceted woman. Earlier a signature line at Doordarshan News, she’s been a Professor of History at University of Delhi. Her columns are a vanguard voice, against a dilapidated system, that denies women their rightful place in society. She’s amongst the first batch of young ladies to enter the portal’s of St. Stephen’s College, a male bastion till then.
Two Poems :-
‘Everyone has been cemented’
He doesn’t see
Nor does he hear
Caught in the depths of his throat
His voice can’t be heard
He stammers for all practical purposes
He looks a complete man
But could it be possible
That he’s just a stone?
It appears men have
Turned into etchings
On the wall
I feel suffocated
Where man is stoned
Come, please do come
See the blind faith
Some men do manage to make a God
Even out of a stone
The turbulent clouds portend
Another torrential monsoon
The stone work is already weak
Dam is sure to burst this time
Come, come let’s choose from the handful from the crowd
Of mute, faceless bystanders
And desecrate them place of stones.
‘I resolve to win it back’: by Neelam Singh
My night is awake
Someone has broken the rays
Why do dreams come in sleep
Why stars are left waiting outside
It is your memory which has sewed up the wounds of love
Today I have pulled out the stitches
And give you back, the thread
How painful it is!
From the holy book of my love
I have torn out a page
A caravan of flowers
Passes through a desert
I have resolved to win back
The faith that was once lost
My night is awake
However distant you may be !
Neelam M. Singh
Review by Justice S. Mohan, Judge; The Supreme Court of India
Ocean of Love by Neelam M. Singh, reviewed by Justice S. Mohan, Judge, Supreme Court of India
Ocean of Love: Outer poise with inner turmoil…journey of life!
My night is awake, however distant you may be! Neelam M. Singh
Interview of M. F. Husain by author Neelam M. Singh at Mauraya Shereton Hotel, New Delhi, during shooting.
बकलम-खुद: एम एफ हुसैन की अन्तर्यात्रा
Padma Vibhushan M.F. Husain, with his mindblowing creative works in his studio
Shadows of Lovers: a poetic conversation of M.F. Husain with Neelam Mahajan Singh
M. F. Hussain: My aunt Anwar Bibi used to sell vegetables, in Pundharpur, with me tucked in her arms…I am a poor man !
The closed window Let the History Cut across me Without me M.F. Husain to Neelam M. Singh
Shadows of Lovers
Hey Friends, this is the most exclusive poetic interview with Padma Vibhushan Maqbool Fida Husain better known as M. F. Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011) with me, telecast on Doordarshan’s programme “The Capital Scene,” that I used to devise and present. “Shadows of Lovers” is published in my poetry book, Ocean of Love. Husain was India’s most prolific, controversial, and world-renowned artist. He was a modern painter of international acclaim, and a founding member of Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group. Nothing could stop the controversies surrounding his life! Husain died very lonely in London. Enjoy this conversation in poetry:-
“Shadows of Lovers”
A Dialogue with M.F. Husain. A poetic interview by Neelam M. Singh : Ocean of Love
The tall, lean M.F. Husain
Deep ocean like eyes
Has made a long journey
Through different ages and epochs
By the medium
Of beautiful creation.
Neelam: Does your love see you alone, naked and in the desert?
Husain: it is this innocence
Which has been
The open eyed wonder in my eyes
Looking at everything
As if
For the first time in my life
Space was colour
Colour was Space
That space was unlimited
And
That space within the space
Where I wanted to put an image
To be invented at will
Alone, I wander…
Neelam: Who according to you is the original Superman…a metaphor?
Husain: Hanuman, the Bajrangbali !
As a child I watched
Ramayana enacted in the streets of Indore
The heroic acts of Bajrangbali
Came alive before my mind
New York, a city that represents
Contemporary world in diversity
I conceived of Hanuman as the
Orginal Superman
I recreated him in sketches water and colour
Hanuman contemplates
The garden of Ravana
Like a page of calligraphy
Like the Shadow of Lovers
Projected by fire on a wall
Like the stains of monsoon rains
On a ruined palace
Of the abandoned towns
Like a metaphor of the path
And the convergence of all
Of the embraces of bodies
Neelam: Has your lover, ever been dwarfed by poverty?
Husain: I was a boy from a rural town
Became a sophisticated urbanite
When you see poor people braving
You’ll get the strength to act
I remember my aunt Anwar Bibi
Selling vegetables around the temple of Pundharpur
With me tucked in her arms
How can I be away
From the rural
And the poor?
Neelam: Have you made a permanent niche in the gallery of the greats?
Husain: If you know
I am Mc Bull in certain works
Why should one go for names?
Let the work be appreciated
What can really be done of exploiters?
Ignore them
Let there be something new
After I am gone
I don’t want to be remembered!
Neelam: After I have gone…
Husain: …………..
Neelam: Is religion necessary? Can one not live without formalities of religion?
Husain: To believe in one religion
Is to restrict the scope of understanding
I’ve drawn figures, events
Of the Bible, Bhagwad Gita,
Mahabharata, Quran.
Humanist’s passionate search
For a human faith
Which I seek to find
In life
In numerous religions.
Neelam: Do you feel age knocking at your door?
Husain: I wish I would stay in
My youth but
When my yellow eyes,
In grey head
Could never be closed
Under the bad sheet of nights
I wish
But the roaming echo
Does knock
The closed window
Let the History
Cut across me
Without me…
(Neelam M. Singh)
A chance encounter with Amrita Pritam
(Poetic conversation with Amrita Pritam by Neelam M. Singh, in 1995)
I met Amrita and Imroz several times at their house in Green Park, New Delhi. Amrita Pritam found her younger reflection in me. She would cook food for me! Imroz was always smiling and clicking pictures! He felt exhilarated by Amrita Pritam’s affection for me ! I can never forget these Angels on earth who gave their feelings to me. Ever grateful: Neelam M. Singh
“A chance encounter with Amrita Pritam – A poetic dialogue of the two souls”
In the dimmer and excitement
Of clasped floating reverence
In the crowd at Osho’s pavilion
Amrita Pritam and I
Completely adoring the enigmatic Osho
At the release of
EK ONKAR SATNAM
Ocean of Love, changes hands
From mine to hers
An orange ‘Angvastram’
Wrapped on her, by me
Imroz clicked a few pictures
We sat on a Pagdandi
Our souls communicated :-
Amrita: How are you still outside? While you have already immersed and drowned yourself in the “Ocean of Love”?
Neelam: I’m deep drowned, only ostensibly I am outside! I have no control on my external existence ____I am floating and yet immersed
With tender hands, gently, she leafs the pages of “Ocean of Love”
Amrita: I like your sixteenth poem, very much
Neelam: Which one is it? I forgot myself !! Oh it’s ‘Massive Tide’
“She had risen high, she flew in the sky
She falls with the tide
People call it
Suicide….”
Yeah, this was one of the most traumatic poems, happenings of my life
I have resurrected
From ashes, many times
Amrita: Don’t you get tired of fighting the taboos and rigidity of the society…..I am tired, I have seen it all….
Neelam: You can’t be tired
All through, you are
An epitome of rebellion Courage, sensitivity, fortitude
Yeah, I am tired, so tired
My body and mind ache
I always remember Robert Browning
“He who did the most
Shall bear the most
The strongest
Shall stand the most weak”
I am not the strongest, yet
Fighting for the weak
Against the strong…
I know I can’t go on…
After a few days
Amrita: I have heard a lot about you, your courage, intelligence and strength
Neelam: At what cost? You remember Aristotle was poisoned?
You remember, Lord Jesus had to carry His own Cross?
You remember, several Agni Parikshhas of Sita Maiyaa?
You remember Bhairon’s onslaught On Durga?
No no no
I’m just a molecule
Merely so
You remember Draupadi’s Cheerharan?
San the fact of five husbands?
Amrita: One day a Sadhu came to my home
He said, I’m deeply touched by your words
“Please keep it on the table, I’ll pick it up”
I said, Maharaj, mine are the same hands
Which have written these words
That have stirred your heart?
You can touch the words but not the hands
That have written these words?
I asked with an amazing surprise and firmness
The Sadhu was at loss of words
Neelam: How true Your true self is known
But hard for others to accept it ?
Amrita: Did you read ‘Ek Muthi Akshar’ and ‘Rasidi Ticket’ (Revenue Stamp) ?
Neelam: Yeah Amrita jee
We shall have a journey within!
Guardian Angels: Journey of Two Souls…
Amrita Pritam and Neelam Mahajan Singh (aka Neelam M. Singh) in poetic conversation: A Chance Encounter (Tandava: Shiva’s Dance of Fury and Annihilation by Neelam M. Singh)
You have already immersed and drowned yourself in the ‘Ocean of Love’ ! How are you outside?” Amrita Pritam quizzes Neelam M. Singh
Amrita Pritam with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Film maker, M. S. Subbaluxmi, Classical singer and others
Amrita Pritam’s revolutionary, path breaking poetry will always keep her alive in our hearts! Thank you Amrita Pritam ! Neelam M. Singh
Tandava: Shiva's Dance of Fury and Annihilation
Eid ka Chaand: Neelam M. Singh
मैं मुंतज़र हूँ
तेरे दीद का
तू चांद बन कर
नज़र आई
ईद का
नीलम म. सिंह
Shambhu Yadav says:
“हर धड़कते पत्थर को लोग दिल समझते हैं
उम्रें बीत जाती हैं दिल को दिल बनाने में”।