“Poetry is the
evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash”
Leonard Cohen
Hyderabad gathered at
Alliance Française,
on the 28 th of
September, 6.30 pm, to attend Au Rythme des Relations: An
Evening of Interactive Poetry Reading.
The
event was organized jointly, by the institute and Ms Jhilam Chattaraj, poet,
author, Assistant Professor, RBVRR Women’s College.
 |
| The Key-note |
The aim of the evening was
to diffuse the usual distance between the audience and poets and comprehend the
various rhythms of human relationships through poetry.
Aude Emeline Loriot N, Director, Alliance
Française
inaugurated the program and felicitated the poets.
Mini Nayani, Cultural co-coordinator,
introduced the artists.
 |
| Poet, Srividya, being felicitated by the Director |
Jhilam announced the objectives of the event and
moderated the session. The new and experimental format created a space for
instant and live feedback to every poem that was read out.
 |
| Extreme left: Ms Mini Nayani, Cultural Co-ordinator along with audience |
Poets were requested to read their poems even twice and
explain their craft to the audience. The participant poets
were, Elizabeth Kurian Mona who read ghazals in English
and Urdu, Rebecca Vedavathy, read the French translations
of Mona’s
poems and also a few of her own, Srividya
Sivakumar read poems from her book, The Heart is an Attic,
Paresh Tiwari read from his book Raindrops Chasing
Raindrops
and Jhilam Chattaraj read from her newly
launched book, When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays.
 |
| The session is on! |
In the first round, the poets read verses on love, longing and loss;it set the pace of the event. The second round was led by
the audience.
 |
| Our Lovely Audience |
They selected a poet of their choice and a theme and relevant
poems were read out. The high-octane tempo
of the evening reached its peak when a la
mushaira atmosphere was created by the English ghazals of poet, Mona: the audience wah-wahed along with her couplets, displaying an inspiring mélange
of eastern and western cultures; something that late, Indian-American-Kashmiri
poet and popular English ghazal writer, Agha Shahid Ali had once envisioned.
Students,
HR Executives, painters, influencers, academicians among the audience shared
the auditory, psychological and aesthetic effects of the poems on them.
 |
| Eminent guests: Mr Vijay Marur and Mr Sanjay Gadhalay |
They
explained how poetry reading sessions like the present one enabled the poem to
be free of the torturous interpretations they were taught to infer due to the
influence of complicated pedagogical methods often used in schools.
 |
| Poets among Audience |
The
novel approach to the Reading was the first of its kind in the city. It
demystified the processes of writing and offered the audience a peek into the
craft of poetry. The event set a new benchmark for poetry readings in the city-
audience is no more the passive listener but an active participant. The audience
was also treated with elegant book marks with quotations from each poet’s work.
Poets guided the audience cross the bridge of poetry and meet them and thus
marking the beginning of a beautiful and lasting friendship.
