At Phagwara in this location, eminent Punjabi poet Gurbhajan Gill on Monday published his book “Akhar Akhar,” which includes up to eight volumes and 900 ghazals that he has written over the past 50 years.
At a celebration held by the Punjabi Lok Virasat Academy in Ludhiana, Punjabi Kala and Sahit Kendar in Phagwara, and Sangeet Darpan magazine, the book was officially released.

Eminent authors present included Prof. Jaswant Singh Gandam, president, Taranjit Singh Kinra, chief editor of Sangeet Darpan and president of Punjabi Kala and Sahit Kendar, Sarabjit Singh Lubana, convener of the Doaba zone of the Punjabi Lok Virasat Academy, and Gurmit Palahi, general secretary of Punjabi Virsa Trust, Phagwara.

Speaking at the event, Gurbhajan Gill, who turned 70 this May, stated that his eight collections of ghazals contained all he had written between 1973 and 2023.

The book has 472 pages, but they are printed in the style of two columns on each page to make it appear less bulky because “big books discourage readers.” A poet uses paper to vent his rage against the system or specific people, according to Gurbhajan Gill, who has published over twenty volumes to date and received numerous accolades.

A fervent supporter of friendly relations between Pakistan and India on a personal level, “A poet, being sensitive and peace-loving, can not physically fight against whatever he does not like. He puts his anger on paper through his poems,” said Gill, whose three novels have also been translated into “Shahmukhi.” We should all be able to verbalize the suffering of the place where we were born. However, this suffering ought to glide through us like honey. As in “Jo saaz se nikali hai, woh dhun sabh ne suni hai” or “Jo taar pe beeti hai, who kis ko pata hai,” everyone is concerned with the melody but nobody is concerned with the string.

Gill recalled the couplets of Hindi poet Dushyant Kumar and urged authors to foster a culture of words. He paid attention to poets like Jagtar, Harbhajan Hundal, and Kashmir Qadar as well as celebrated Bashir Badr, Nida Fazli, and Surjit Patar.

Speaking during the event, Prof. Jaswant Singh Gandam noted that Gurbhajan Gill’s poetry is beautiful because of its clarity, conciseness, and profundity. He cited one of his couplets from “Shehar Lahoron Ambarsar da/Kinna painda ghar tau ghar da” (How far is the trek from home to home between Lahore city and Amritsar), which describes the pain of Partition.