By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 16 Sep: The poetry group, Moonweavers – चाँद के जुलाहे, held a poetry meet at the newly opened Mudcup Café, Rajpur Road, on the occasion of Vishwa Hindi Divas on 14 September.
The event witnessed a confluence of bilingual poets (English and Hindi) from different walks of life. Noted shaayar Dard Garhwali aka Laxmi Prasad Badoni, who pens shayari in Hindustani, graced the occasion with his presence and treated the group to his soulful couplets, remarkable for their brevity, simplicity, and sheer depth and expanse of his thoughts. With the passage of time, the Urdu poetry genre of Shayari, which has its roots in the oral culture tradition of the subcontinent, has evolved dynamically and is no longer restricted to conventional Urdu.
Dard Garhwali’s ghazal collection, “Ishq-Mohabbat Jaaree Rakho”, published by Samay Sakshya, Dehradun, was released recently. The specialty of his poetry lies in the brevity of his verse and the fact that he writes Shayari in easy-to-understand spoken “Hindustani” these days.
Noted poet, illustrator, artist, sculptor, and photographer Viky Arya, enthralled the group with her trademark short Hindi poems. Rich in imagery and extremely concise, Viky’s Hindi poems come across as an extension of her artistic persona; an artist’s creative output across different genres has to be seen in totality and cannot be placed in different compartments, Viky Arya’s poetry proves this adage true. Born and brought up in Dehradun, Viky is a national award winner for children’s literature. Her poetry collection Canvas has been awarded Kriti Samman by the Hindi Academy.
Other participants in the Moonweavers Poetry Meet included English poet Kaushik Ghosh, bilingual poet T Merena, Hindi poet and writer Keerti Ahlawat, Hindi poet Lakshmi, Hindi poet Neha Verma, and others. The Moonweavers Poetry Meet on Hindi Diwas was curated by Rati Agnihotri, a bilingual poet, journalist, writer, and the founder of Moonweavers.
The participating poets came from a broad spectrum of professions – journalism, media higher education, advertising, etc. However, the common thread that ran through the participants was their love for the Hindi language. Many participants echoed the view that even though English was their professional language, when it came to matters of heart, they preferred to express themselves in Hindi. Participating poet Neha Verma who teaches Media Studies at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, emphasised that her love for poetry is intrinsically connected to her love for the Hindi language. A media professional and a voiceover artiste, Neha started jotting down verse in bits and pieces here and there, and that’s how her passion for poetry grew with time.
Participating poet Keerti Ahlawat who manages her own business along with her husband, read soulful and exuberant verse representing the sheer beauty and dynamism of the aesthetics of “Shringar Ras” in Hindi poetry. Keerti also writes short stories in Hindi; her story is a part of the recently published short story collection “Yaar Batohi” which has become immensely popular on Amazon.
Dr Kaushik Ghosh, who teaches Computer Science at UPES read soul-stirring verse, depicting the helplessness of common people in the wake of the sad incident of the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. T Merena read a Hindi poem accompanied by an English translation. Lakshmi, who is an MA (English Literature) student read her soulful Hindi poetry.
Moonweavers is a multilingual group that encourages poets to read self-composed poems across language barriers, as long as the poems are accompanied by a translation in English or Hindi. The group sees language as a medium of poetic expression and not an end in itself. Thus, to truly promote a diverse poetic consciousness, it’s important to work across different languages and in the process, erode the boundaries between them, according to them.
As Moonweavers founder Rati Agnihotri puts it, “Moonweavers was founded with the idealistic intention of making poetry reach all irrespective of their linguistic background, education status, ideological leanings, etc. Thus, Moonweavers conceptualises poetry as a large umbrella under which all get united by virtue of their sheer love for poetry. Thus, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, our aim was to provide a common platform for all kinds of poetry through the medium of Hindi”.
