Shukar hai tun jinda hain –thank God you are alive. We are living in a season of the unborn, so you are lucky to be born.

Today, I will tell you a tale. You know, story telling is an art. Earlier, our mothers and grandmothers used to tell us stories; today mothers don’t have time and grandmothers live in old-age homes. Reading does not come easily to us and the vacuum has been more than adequately but wrongly filled up by soap operas on television.

Few days back you asked me, “Uncle, what is Lohri? Some sociologists believe that festivals follow the weather. Since it is biting cold in December-January, we have the Lohri festival celebrating Fire. I think we should distinguish between religious and social festivals. Oh ho, let me come to the story.

One minute Sanjog, this is a folk tale. Most folk lore is true but somehow they don’t enter school texts and history books. Even after four centuries, the hero of our story is still a legend.

This is called oral history but this knowledge also is likely to fade into oblivion if it is not narrated through the generations. During this year’s Lohri celebrations too, I did not hear much about the central character of this festival, so I thought that it would be a good idea to share with you this story.

Once upon a time, there was a person called Abdullah Bhatti, who lived in the semi-arid region lying between rivers Chenab and Ravi, which now falls in the districts of Sheikhupura and Faislabad, called the Saandal Bar. The people of this area were brave and resisted invading marauders. He was popularly called Dullah Bhatti.

His father and grand father were rebels against the Mughals and were killed by Akbar. Dullah Bhatti walla was also a rebel and Sikhs like and admire rebels. The author of Prachin Panth Prakash, Rattan Singh Bhangu tells us that a Sikh is either a king or a rebel - Raaj karein ikke larr marhain.

His mother Laddhi used to tell her daughter-in-law: “what say you, listen, daughter-in-law. The jackal had a litter of five or seven, the lioness, brought forth but one. When my lion roars, he shouts: kill! kill!. The king’s forces flee and do not stop even to breathe.”

You know Sanjog, Dullah Bhatti wala was like a highway thief, but he used to rob the gifts for Emperor Akbar from the newly conquered territories of Kashmir and Afghanistan. During the course of his robbery attempts, Dullah Bhattiwala acted as Robinhood. He rescued Hindu women abducted by the Mughal forces and resettled them with pomp and glory. He not only got them married but also gave away sweetmeats in the form of Reoris and Tilshakris. Beta, when my grandmother Raj Kaur, narrated this story to me, she used to say, there was a rain of reoris from the sky, because of the good deed of Dullah Bhattiwala.

The lore is that he would marry off young girls as adopted daughters. You should carefully listen to the folk song, “Dulla Bhatti wala –ho!, Dulle di dhi vihai –ho!, sher sakar pai –ho!” because he gave a kilo of sugar as a gift to everyone on his adopted daughter’s marriage. Though a Muslim himself, he carried out all marriages by Hindu rites.

Dullah Bhatti wala was known to be a friend of Salim, the son of Akbar and had helped him to rebel against his father. Dullah’s guerrilla tactics invited the fury of Akbar who sent his two commanders to attack Sandlanwala and bring Dullah Bhatti to the emperor’s court. The order was to imprison all his relatives, including his mother and other female members. When the commanders attacked Dullah’s village, he was away, so the womenfolk were captured.

When Dullah heard that his women had been imprisoned by the Mughal forces, he immediately rushed back. One poet says: Mein bhoran Dilli dey kingrey tey bhajarr paa dian takht Lahore -I will humble the fort of Delhi and upset the throne of Lahore. Dullah fought valiantly but was captured and publicly hanged in Nakhas Mandi (today’s Landa Bazaar) on March 26, 1589.

So, now you know about Dullah Bhattiwallah of the Lohri festival. Last year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 19,000 rapes, 7,500 dowry deaths and 36,500 molestation cases all over India. I think that India desperately needs a Dullah Bhatti wallah. Ah, ha, now you know, why I told this story.

While Dullah Bhattiwala celebrated the girl child by protecting women’s honour, the Lohri festival, ironically has been reduced to gaiety and glory for the birth of boys. This is bad, isn’t it?

Hey, I have an idea. In the early nineteenth century, when Bal Gangadhar Tilak wanted a Maratha festival to “counter” the Shia Moslem street show of Taaziya, he invented the Ganesh immersion festival in Maharashtra. Ganpati Bappa Morya as a festival is barely hundred years old. So, how about having a Dullah Bhattiwallah, all decked up like Santa Claus, urging Punjabis in one lane after another, from one village to another, to respect the girl child! May be this way, the legend will also live and the Punjabi girl child will also be saved!

What do you think Sanjog? Should we make such moves for the next Lohri?