Event review- Poetry and the past

Event name: Poetry and the past
Organised by: Youth for heritage foundation
Venue: Gulmohar Hall, India habitat centre
Speaker: Saumya Kulusheshtra
Date: 21 May 2016

India habitat centre is a place to be for activities related to art and culture. The atmosphere is very promising to discuss creative thoughts that need stimulus to come into form. Youth for heritage foundation, a unique, unassuming and dedicated group of people, held another successful talk that provided rich knowledge of culture and heritage. The lecture was titled 'Poetry and the past' and having attended a lecture last year on 'the historic poets of Delhi' by young and talented poet Yaseen Anwar, I knew this one would be just as great.

Vikramjeet Singh Rooprai clarified the key difference between history and heritage at the very beginning. History is what has happened and heritage is what is left of it. We need to focus on the latter because that has more utility and hence it is the more sensible thing to do

Saumya Kulusheshtra began her lecture on the same lines, emphasising the purpose of this talk in the need to know two important things: what poetry is and from where has poetry come from. Of course the two questions are inter related. She touched on different myths that were associated with the origin of poetry. She believes in digging the roots of something to understand the whole and complete meaning. She illustrated how poetry existed before writing evolved as this was the medium that helped to convey 'more in less' . When printing had not evolved and people could not record as much, they used poetry. Also poetry has greater retention as it is in rhythm and meter; something which nobody in the audience could deny. She discussed how poetry evolved through centuries and how it responded to the changes in the society.

She discussed the need to understand the author and the time in which he wrote the poem to understand the poem. I completely believe in this ideology as well. The author is more important than his work. The author at his best is an extension of himself.  The teachers while teaching poetry must keep this aspect in their mind so as to make poetry more purposeful and meaningful to students.

Saumya also emphasised how poetry was taking a full circle and how we are focussing once again on performing poetry rather than just writing it. It is due to digital modernisation, where she also made a point that blogs are the literature for generations to come, something which I do not completely buy. In her words,  online medium is s democratic world without censorships, which it is, but I doubt it's credibility to ever be considered something more organised and authentic as literature is.

This was the second time that I acquitted Saumya. The first time was at Poets Collective group session last December where I got a chance to recite my poem and listen to almost two dozen fantastic poets. Saumya is a real social butterfly and she used her easy going and lively personality while delivering the lecture. She displayed her brilliant sense of humour and was candid in her interactions with the audience, something that made almost a two hour session very entertaining and thought provoking at the same time.

Tauseef Ahmed concluded the session with his few but precise words. I have heard some of the incidents and stories he shared, but just the way he presents them, they sound as good as the first time. He by the way gave the best advice to young and emerging poets: don't tell your parents about your ambition to become a poet.