Kisse, originally came from word Qissa, a Persian word which means "epic legend" or "folk tale".

They are a source of many Punjabi legends, stories and songs.

We all have heard about Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiba, Sohni Mahiwal, Sassi Punnu and some might know about less famous tales of Sucha Soorma, Jeona Maur, Shirin Farhad, Pooran Bhagat, Kehar singh Ram Kaur (heard in some song.. jatti ram kaur nu ji kehar singh len jad se aya...) but what about Dhol Sammi, Yusaf Zulekha, Kaulan, Dullah Bhati, Manu Guggu, Ustad Harman, Jat Parmz, Inder maal n Bego, Bakhtaura Jatt and many more...

They are all gone.. faded away from Punjabi memories forever...

I am also like you all, don't know much about our folk tales. I am curious about these tales and want to know about them.

Lets hope we can gather some lost stories here.

I got this story from one of my friends who did some serious research on the story. Hats off to him for this great work!

Here goes the legend!

Sucha Singh is a folk legend in Punjab made famous mostly by the event involving his sister-in-law Balbiro’s extra-marital affair with one of his close friends. There is a surely a lot more to Sucha Singh’s credit that just this though.
Balbir Kaur aka Balbiro aka Biro was married to a man Juaarh Singh in a village at the border of Patiala-Sangrur. She was a lustful and greedy wife, and when her husband failed to fulfill her expectations, she, according to various theories, poisoned him. Having done that very innocently, she and her parents invite other marriage proposals (as you might understand, she would not be expected to be married to a a very able person because of her widowhood, given the traditions in Punjab ). Having heard about this invitation, Sucha Singh Jawanda and Ghukkar Mall Chahal, residents of village Samaon near Sangrur, go to see her and speak to her for Sucha's elder brother Narain Singh.
She accepts the offer for getting married to Naraina on a few conditions. She asks them to load her with jewellary on the wedding, give her freedom in terms of running the house, doing other chores, eating, drinking etc. By the way, she relished drinking liquor and eating meat and chicken. (these as you might again understand were things quite far-fetched to women folk in Punjab). Intending to get Naraina married ( he was an addict to opium, as Biro would claim it later ), they agree upon all her conditions. Ofcourse she was beautiful too.
After the marriage consumated, she was provided with whatever she desired within the families social and financial limits. As Sucha and Ghukkar were very close friends they would often meet up at Sucha's place. As Ghukkar began to frequent his visits, he decided to propose to Balbiro. She was hesitant because of her her brother-in-law Sucha but at the same time was attracted to Ghukkar, who was a landlord, a wrestler and an influential person in the village.

As per the scheme, Ghukkar sympathised with Sucha on his financial plight and suggested that they should join the army in Multan. As they go to get recruited, Ghukkar on the pretext of feeling homesick comes back to the village and openly indulged in sex and drunken revelries with Biro. Biro’s husband, a submissive person, wrote to Sucha explaining the situation to him. Sucha comes back with the intention of resolving things, conveyed messages to Ghukkar, called upon wiser folk of the village, but Ghukkar did not pay heed or oblige to any instructions. In the meantime, Biro tried to pacify Sucha from taking any extreme step.

Juaan deor de khauf se, paein naar nu haul,
Rafal dunaali vekhke, Biro kare makhaul.

Sucha usually responded by beating her up for bringing this to his house. Biro tried everything, from changing her stance and saying that Ghukkar forced her into doing this --

Biro ro-ro deor nu kahaani dassgi, jaal vich gheri vi bateri fassgi.
Baahle dukh katte nikkal bhambaur se, mallo-malli aanwda ghukkar zor se.

-- to meeting up with Ghukkar to identify a solution, tried to convince her friends to explain it to Sucha that she and Ghukkar were lovers, just like the famous Heer Ranjha etc, and even threatened Sucha with dire consequences because majority of the village was on Ghukkar’s side.
Ghukkar organized a singing programme (Khara) and on this pretext calls upon his various allies from other villages as well.

Nerre-terre baasak nagar Chahalaan de, daru maas veswa patte ve vailaan de,
Chobar bulaale saare deke vaadhi ai, ghukkar pind waale ne sadaale dhadi ai.

Basically, the stage was now set for a face to face confrontation between these one time best friends. The moment came when Biro was passing by and was commented upon by Ghukkar as being his property/possession/mistress. And he asked Biro to come to him and enjoy with him in the company of his friends. Biro obliged.

Ghukkar and his friends got drunk and threatened Sucha who prepared himself his rifle and single-handed challenged Ghukkar and his allies to face him in this little battle of egos. Ghukkar’s allies seeing the weapon and Sucha’s high spirits, sheepishly just ran away.

Sihtt jaan chhaviyaan gandaase chhodge, pal vich saare hi yaaraane todge.
Belt gale ch kaartoos sann ge, vekh ke rafal nu hawayiyaan bann ge.

Sucha seeing Ghukkar’s friends running for their life, confronts Ghukkar who pleads for his life. Sucha would not listen, and fired right into Ghukkar from point blank (as they say) after which he killed one of Ghukkar’s friends who was brave enough to come back and try to avenge his friends death.

Modhe naal laawe chakk ke machine nu, dabbke stud bhare magazine nu,
Mall vanni chhadde jor-jor shistaan, der na lagawe taahr deve kishtaan.

Filled with rage and vengeance, Sucha then kills his sister-in-law who had in the meantime run home.

Goliyaan de naal bhann sitte pathhe ji, Biro te ghadola digg paein kathhe ji.
Pai geya bhadaaka kaun jhalle sajjno, sarad-sarad goli challe sajjno.

Sucha committing those murders, ran from his village and went west towards Muktsar. Police came really close looking for him, and had some local courageous men rewarded for looking for him. One pathan caught up with Sucha and challenged him. Sucha was the first one to shoot though and kills the pathan too.

Jor leya rafal nu andar khes de, hune naam likh deyaan marabbe es de.

An year passed after the incident in Samaon that Sucha resurfaced again. This time, on his way back to his village to see his brother, he came across an old hindu woman crying sitting outside her house in a village Bargaadi near Kotkapura. Upon inquiring, he came to know that some savage muslims in the village were ill-treating the hindus .. so much so that they forcible took their cattle away and killed it and feasted eating the meat, while forcing the hindus to eat it too.

Sucha went to the scoundrels and tried to stop them as they were about to kill another cow. This interference infuriated the muslims who went ahead with the killing anyway. Sucha shot five of them down while a few others managed to run away.

Later, Sucha joined a group of dacoits and ran havoc in the area. Soon enough, another situation very familiar arose and required his discretion. A widow and a mother of two sons, Sahib Kaur (the elder of the sons, Basant Singh was in his early teens) in village Gehri in Bathinda, started hanging out with another influential man from the same village. Her kids tried to stop her but she would not listen. On the contrary, she got her elder son beaten up by her lover Gajjan Vaili. Basant made contact with his paternal uncle, Ran Singh, who was coincidentally in the army too (just like Sucha). This infuriated Ran but he although had heard the story of Sucha, did not feel he was brave enough to carry out justice there. But he knew that Sucha was around in the area making loots and all. He managed to convey the message to Sucha about the problem his sister-in-law (Sahib Kaur) had put his family in. Sucha responded quickly and killed both Sahib Kaur and Gajjan Vaili.
Police tracked Sucha down in Kotshamir, a village close to Gehri, after this incident. He was hanged in Gehri.

Khich lainde phatta jeya lagge na phattka, vajjeya hulaara dhaun khaagi jhatka,
Suche de nikkle praan pal mein, bolke jaikaara tandi paali gal mein.

Reference:
1. Folk songs and folk lore.
2. Rajab Ali’s take on the legend.

Well here is a wikipedia link to Punjabi Kisse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_Kisse

I found these links for this less famous story. Hope this will be helpful!

http://www.afghanland.com/culture/shirin.html

http://dooroodiran.blogspot.com/2004/02/ancient-persian-love-story-shirin-and.html

1.) It is believed that the poem of Heer and Ranjha had a happy ending but Waris Shah gave it the sad ending, thereby giving it the legendary status it now enjoys. It is argued by Waris Shah in the beginning of his version that the story of Heer and Ranjha has a deeper connotation - the relentless quest of man (humans) for God.

2.) Baba Gorakhnath (whom Ranjha joined) was the founder of the "Kanphata"(pierced ear) sect of jogis, at "Tilla Jogian"(the 'Hill of Ascetics', located 50 miles north of the historic town of Bhera, Sargodha District, Punjab(Pakistan).

3.) Folk love stories where the guy's name comes first are Mirza Sahiba, Yousaf khan Sherbano, Mosa khan Gul maky and Umar Marvi.

4.) Sassi Punnun is one of the seven popular tragic romances of the Sindh and four of the most popular in Punjab. The other six are Umar Marvi, Mamol Rano, Sohni Mahiwal, Laila Chanesar, Sorath Rai Diyach, Noori Jam Tamachi       commonly known as Seven Queens of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.

5.) 'Sassi was the daughter of the  King of Bhambour it is in Sindh, Pakistan. Upon Sassui's birth, astrologers predicted that she was a curse for the royal family’s prestige. The King ordered that the child be put in a wooden box and thrown in the river Indus. A washerman of the Bhambour village found the wooden box and the child in the box. The washerman believed the child was a blessing from God and took her home. As he had no child of his own, he decided to adopt her.Sussi is also known as the princess of hope.

6.) Punnun was Prince of Makran

7.) Being a washerman himself, Sassi's father was dispirited, hoping that Sassi would marry a washerman and no one else. Sassi's father asked Punnun to prove that he was worthy of Sassi by passing the test as a washerman.

8.) Mahiwal's original name was Izzat Baig. Since he took up the job of a servant in the house of Lula, Sohni's father. He would even take their buffaloes for grazing. Soon, he came to be known as "Mahiwal"(buffalo herder).

9.) Sohni lies buried in Shahdapur, Sindh,some 75 km from Hyderabad, Pakistan. According to the legend the bodies of Sohni Mahiwal were recovered from the River Indus near this city and hence are buried there.

great contributions... aaftab....

u r doing a great job... keep rockin..

There was a brave man named Farhad, who loved a Princess named Shirin, but the Princess did not love him. Farhad tried in cain to gain access to the love-cell of Shirin's heart, but no one would dare betray the fact that a stonecutter loved a lady of royal blood. Farhad, in despair, would go to the mountains and spend whole days without food, playing on his flute sweet music in praise of Shirin. At last people thought to devise a plan to acquaint the Princess of the stone-cutter's love. She saw him once, and love which lived in his bosom also began to breathe in hers. But she dared not a mean laborer aspire to win the hand of a princess? It was not long, however, before the Shah himself heard some rumor of this extraordinary exchange of sentiment. He was naturally indignant at the discovery, but as he had no child other then Shirin, and Shirin was also pining away with love, he proposed to his daughter that her lover, being of common birth, must accomplish a task such as no man may be able to do, and then, and only then, might he be recommended to his favor.
The task which he skillfully suggested was that Shirin should ask her lover to dig a canal in the rocky land among the hills. The canal must be six lances in width and three lances deep and forty miles long!

The Princess had to convey her father's decision to Farhad, who forthwith shouldered his spade and started off to the hills to commence the gigantic task. He worked hard and broke the stones for years. He would start his work early in the morning when it was yet dark and never ceased from his labor till, owing to darkness, no man could see one yard on each side.
Shirin secretly visited him and watched the hard working Farhad sleeping with his taysha(spade) under his head, his body stretched on the bed of stones. She noticed, with all the pride of a lover, that he cut her figure in the rocks at each six yards and she would sigh and return without his knowing.