Sohan Singh Misha

Preparing a poem for radio

Misha was born in the Kapurthala princely state in 1934.[1]

Sohan Singh Misha’s radio work involved attention to the voice as well as the written poem. Earlier, he had taught English at Sathiala. Gurbhajan Gill remembers learning microphone technique from him at All India Radio Jalandhar in 1976–77. The practical lesson stayed with Gill, who credited Misha with helping him speak clearly. He also recalls Misha listening to poems and suggesting revisions before recordings. A remembered 1978 journey with Kuldeep Takhar to meet and record singer Bibi Nooran places the producer within another kind of literary and musical collaboration. Gill’s related recollection follows the writing beyond Misha’s life: editors and his literary circle helped bring remaining poems and collected work into print. These memories preserve particular acts of preparation, encouragement and publication. They describe a producer working closely with writers and performers, rather than treating a radio programme as a finished voice detached from that labour.[2]

Asking what progress means

Amrit Lal Paul’s monograph reads a related concern in the poetry: the difference between material development and a humane life. His discussion places roads, bus routes and farmers’ tubewells beside continuing deprivation, corruption and distrust. Visible construction alone does not settle the question of progress. Paul reads the poems as asking what destination such activity serves, bringing public achievement into contact with the people who must live through it. He also extends that question to scientific exploration.[1]

Division and the wish for friendship

Paul also identifies Punjab’s division and Indo-Pakistani war as important themes. His reading of Tutte Dil Joran Di Koi Jugat Banaiye stresses a wish to strengthen affection, peace and friendship across hostility. Political separation therefore enters the poetry through damaged human connections and the possibility of restoring them.[1]