India a Lotus Blooming in Dal Lake: FM Quotes Kashmiri Poet Nadim

From Mahatma Gandhi to Swami Vivekananda, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2019 speech was sprinkled with famous quotes from yesteryear leaders. She had even sprinkled her speech with some couplets – including those by Urdu poet Manzoor Hashmi.

This year’s Budget speech is no different. Within minutes of starting her presentation of the Union Budget 2020, Sitharaman quoted Pandit Dinanath Kaul Nadim, a prominent Kashmiri poet of the 20th Century from Srinagar and a Sahitya Academy Award winner.

Here’s the poem Sitharaman quoted, and a rough translation of Nadim’s verses:

हमारा वतन खिलते हुए शालीमार बाग जैसे,

हमारा वतन डल झील में खिलते हुए कमल जैसा, नवजवानों के गर्म खून जैसा,

मेरा वतन, तेरा वतन, हमारा वतन

दुनिया का सबसे प्यारा वतन।।

(Our country is like a blooming Shalimar Bagh
Our country is like a lotus blooming in Dal Lake, like the warm blood of India’s youth,
My country, your country, our country
It is the best country in the world.)

Nadim was honoured with the Sahitya Academy Award in 1986 for a collection called Shihul Kul.

Nadim was born in Srinagar in 1916 and passed away on 8 April 1988. He mostly wrote in the Kashmiri language and his first Kashmiri poem – Maej Kashir – was dedicated to the Valley.

There is a collection of about 150 poems written by Nadim, which includes English, Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri poems. His notable poems include: Bombur Te Yambarzal (Opera), Trivanzah (Monologue), Gris' Kur (Peasant Girl), Dal Hanzni Hund Vatsun (The song of the Dal lake boatwoman) and Lachhi Chu Lakhcun (Experimentation).

(With inputs from IANS)