The (Great) Indian Poetry Project is abuzz with the energy and enthusiasm of young blood. Our interns, Rhea, Shreya and Radhika, have been exploring Modern Indian Poetry with a fine eye and writing beautiful poems inspired by poets all over the world. Indian poets whose work they have resonated with are Tishani Doshi, Anjum Hasan, Nissim Ezekiel, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Arundhathi Subramaniam, among others. Our interns are also helping build our poetry archive by writing profiles of Modern Indian poets and reviewing books that have touched them. Check out what they have been reading:
The (Great) Indian Poetry Project-An Update are also collaborating with another poet, on a project that would display poetry in public places, aptly called Poetry in Public India.
Stay tuned for all things poetry.
Originally posted on SHIKHA MALAVIYA:
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Literary Festival Fever
Yes).
Stay tuned to TGIPP regarding poetry related updates for these festivals.
Latest Showcase of English Poetry by Indians
Sudeep Sen, poet and editor of the Harper Collins Book of English Poetry by Indians, has been an ardent promoter of the work coming out of the Indian subcontinent. He’s been closely involved in the realization of other anthologies in the past, viz., World Literature Today Writing from Modern India (2010), The Literary Review Indian Poetry (2009) and Midnight’s Grandchildren: Post-Independence English Poetry from India (2004). His own poems have appeared in several Indian as well as international publications. His work has also been widely translated in several languages. A Pushcart Prize nominee for his work in Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems by HarperCollins, he is also on the editorial boards of various renowned journals and magazines.
Speaking to mainstream daily, The Times of India, Sudeep Sen shared:
‘The’.
The interview makes for a fine read and is a strong representation for the quality of English poetry coming out of India. Read more here.
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Mark your calendars for Saturday, 29th September 2012. The global 100 Thousand Poets for Change initiative has a local chapter in Bangalore. Come over to Atta Galatta in Koramangala and enjoy poetry readings by the city’s most active poets. If you like poetry and have a heart for social causes, you are welcome to join us even if you may only be passing through Bangalore. Like our Facebook page for all the details of this event or note the updates here.
Poetry, a Conduit of Change
“Art presents the opportunity to influence change in the global social, environmental and political landscape. Poetry, very specifically, can gather people together for issues affecting the world. As a genre it forms an ideal creative outlet while allowing room for expression without the limits of overly rigid rules.”
An article in today’s issue of The Hindu, by Jessu John, on how 100 Thousand Poets for Change is creating ripples all over the world. In India, events are being held in Bangalore, New Delhi and Pune.
Authenticity Found Sideways,”
A long essay by Amit Chaudhuri, in the September issue of The Caravan, called The Sideways Movement, addresses and traces the issues of an indigenous tradition of Indian English writing, tailoring the Emperor’s clothes, so to speak, to suit one’s purpose. Chaudhuri shares how an essay written twenty years ago, by poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, The Emperor Has No Clothes, created a commotion by accusing most Indian English writers of the time, of adopting English and its traditions, without any innovations or customizations. In that infamous essay, Mehrotra made statements such as:
(Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, “The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Chandrabhaga, #7, 1982.)(Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, “The Emperor Has No Clothes.” Chandrabhaga, #7, 1982.)
Barring a few, most Indian English writers acquire the language they write in and seldom lick it off their mothers’ teats. …. This whole question of multilingualism should be looked at less jingoistically if it is to have any meaning, as I think it does.
Mehrotra was brave, in calling a spade a spade, urging writers at that time to take the medium of English and make it their own.
Chaudhuri goes on to examine the implications of Mehrotra’s essay, which was re-released as part of a collection, in 2011, called Partial Recall. Looking to other poets such as A.K. Ramanujan, Arun Kolatkar, Nissim Ezekiel, and R. Parthasarathy, Chaudhuri pieces together a trajectory of modern Indian poetry which is multi-layered in its influences and varied in their stance of what constitutes ‘Indian.’
Set aside time and a scholarly bent of mind to get through this essay;)
Originally posted on SHIKHA MALAVIYA:
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A Different kind of Indian Poetry Anthology
The!
Not as Diplomatic with their Words…
India’s diplomats seem to be wielding the pen for more poetic causes. Amarendra Khatua, India’s newly appointed ambassador to Argentina, adds another book of poems, Love Abracadabra, to the list of Indian diplomats who are writing and publishing books. Khatua, who has bee promoting poetry from his native state Odisha, for more than forty years, has a long list of publications: 14 in Odiya, two in Hindi, one in Telugu and three in English. Khatua shares the title of Indian diplomat/poet with ambassador to the U.S. Nirupama Rao and emerging poet Abhay Kumar, First Secretary, Embassy of India, Kathmandu, who have both published books of poems inspired by their travels outside of India.
Diplomats writing poetry is certainly not a new trend, with Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), the nobel prize winning poet from Chile, serving as a diplomat for much of his adult life. Neruda’s words reverberate around the world, even today, with its explosive metaphors and honest exploration of one’s relationship with the greater world.
Let’s hope India’s diplomat-poets can create the same effect.