Shiv Kumar Batalvi, a renowned poet from Punjab, was the youngest recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award. He was conferred this award at the age of 31 for his magnum opus - Loona. Loona is the story of a woman, married to a king, several years older than her. Shiv* wrote the story from her perspective, contrary to the previous versions, which were either told or written from the male protagonist's viewpoint. While Shiv and his work smite me, I am writing about Loona because I haven't come across a better example to understand empathy.

The idea came to my mind as I read India's National Education Policy 2020. In several places, the policy emphasized the significance of literature for "more holistic education and multi-disciplinary education" not only at school but also in higher education. I have been teaching in management programs for more than a decade now. But I am yet to come across any business school that relies entirely or even partially on texts originating in India. Indian authors are also few. The context is majorly American, even when the literature in different Indian languages is brimming with thousands of stories, anecdotes, and cases immensely relevant to our students and systems. Loona, originally written in Punjabi, is one such story. As the world around us gets more aggressive and less compassionate, more ambitious and less rooted, more materialistic and less happy, more competitive and less empathetic, Loona's story may help understand different perspectives.

About Shiv

During the last two years, I have been obsessed with searching about Shiv on the internet. I came across a few collections of poems, translations here and there, a handful of essays, and some research papers. There are hardly any videos, apart from excerpts from a BBC interview. I have lost count of the times I have seen the video. His honesty and ability to say meaningful things with love and compassion are endearing, and so is his voice, which goes beyond the physical world. There is pain and dilemma, apart from a beautiful persona. Apparently, he was fiercely criticized by the senior poets of his time, which happens to most great artists. Many of his poems are sung by contemporary artists, including Bollywood songs like Ik Kudi and Ajj Din Chadeya. He is the divine idol for Punjabi lovers. But by writing Loona, he became the originator of modern Punjabi Qisse.

About Loona

Loona was Shiv's perspective on the folktale of Puran Bhagat - the prince of Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan. He was born to king Salvaan and queen Icchraan. As the tale goes, an astrologer suggested the king send Puran away for 12 years when he was born. While Puran was gone, the king married a girl much younger than him - Loona. As destiny would have it, when Puran returned, Loona started spending time with him. She was her stepmother but felt attracted to him. Puran resisted and forbade her. Agitated at his refusal, Loona complained to the king that Puran violated her dignity. In a rage, the king ordered his men to amputate Puran's limbs. They executed the king's command and threw Puran into a well.

What emotions does this story evoke? Doesn't one feel disgust and shame on Loona? Naturally! She created trouble for everybody. She was married; she was Puran's stepmother. She crossed the line and eventually left all lives in jeopardy. While the king and the queen were in pain, Puran lost everything, including his limbs. How could Loona do it? How can someone be so wrong? In all this, is there a slight possibility of a different perspective? How? Shiv wrote about it.

About Shiv's Loona

While Loona's character evokes shame and anger, Shiv changed the narrative and perspective. In Shiv's Loona, she comes across as a human full of emotions and a woman who loves deeply and madly. He wrote that she was a woman of lower caste because, in reality, and fiction, it was easier to suppress women and much easier if the women belonged to lower castes. She was forced to marry a man much older to her; her desires crushed. Later, she fell in love with a man who lived in the same house. She did not understand how she could be Puran's mother. From where could she bring a mother's warmth to a child of her age? She insisted that Puran was not her child!

Shiv narrated Loona's side of the story. Her pain was continuous, intertwined with humiliation. She was forcibly married to an old man, suppressed, expected to be a queen and a mother to a full-grown man, and finally renounced by the man she loved. In bitterness, she lied to the king - who was overpowered by his temper.

About Empathy

What is the link between these two versions? Loona is the same, and so are the other characters. While one hates Loona in the first version, Shiv's writing creates empathy for her.

The dictionary meaning of empathy is "the ability to imagine how another person is feeling." It is different from sympathy because it is beyond understanding what the other person feels; it is about experiencing the emotion in unison. But why do we empathize? Biologists talk about mirror neurons, psychologists talk about personality traits, and management teachers talk about training.

In my little experience in teaching and engaging with people, I found that despite the biology or the training, empathy is simple to explain but difficult to attain. The route to empathy runs through a tunnel where one's ego is brutally crushed. It begins with a realization that I may not be right and ends with an acknowledgement that you are right. As we are moving towards self-centred, fast-paced lifestyles with a dominant need for our own spaces, empathizing is becoming tougher. Only the strongest can dare to be empathetic because it is extremely exhausting. But then, it can also be liberating. It can answer the 'whys' and the 'hows'. It can make one stronger and calmer. It can free oneself from inhibitions, thoughts and ego.

As debates on mental health and well-being are gaining ground, especially after the pandemic, empathy is coming to the centre stage. A recent Forbes article discussed how empathy is here to stay and how it will shape the future. So now, every time I feel I am so, so right and I am the only person in the room who understands the problem and everyone else is wrong, I think about Shiv and his Loona. It doesn't solve all my issues but gives me the strength to deal with people and myself.

*I choose to address him as Shiv, neither Batalvi Sahab nor Shiv Kumar ji because I cannot dare to create that distance.

An edited version of this article is now published here: https://poetsandquants.com/2022/07/15/bringing-the-magic-of-indian-folktales-to-the-mba-classroom/?pq-category=international-business-school-news