Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Indian Section


Getting to know this country / continent through its writers, foremostly poets, is a start of a new dialogue to be continued whenever there is given the chance to learn more. Still the vastness of such an undertaking has to be realized since it shall never be completed within a life time.

"There are so many things in India, if you live near Delhi (capital), you can be part of literature, if you live in Mumbai, than you can get money... but I live in Kerala and write in Hindi (language of north). I will be nowhere but this nowhere take us some where! As we do what we want to do, we work without expectations and that gives us energy."

- Rati Saxena, poetess and director of the Kritya Poetry festival

Links:

http://indiaculture.nic.in/indiaculture/ila.html

http://www.museindia.com/

 

Contribution by poetryindia - April 28, 2015

There are more than 20 State languages in India. The Poems forwarded are classified into "Gujarati" and "Others." Introductions to the Poetry of Gujarati and Tamil, two of the major Indian languages, are also included.

Udayan Thakker
Editor, poetryindia.com

http://www.poetryindia.com/

 

India seen from afar

Down well trodden paths

elephants remove timber

and a tiger's eyes gleam

out of the thick bushes

to startle English speaking India

basing still resistance on tradition,

and too often confused by

airs filled with scents of spices

while crowded trains

reinforce impressions

of multiple people

constantly on the move

on foot, bicycles and other means

to escape the dark alleys of poverty

even though there is Mumbai filled with glamour

despite exploding bombs

in a country split in three

since no one heeded Tagore

who advised Gandhi on nationalism

as depending too much on a spinning wheel

when labour and costs of things

do not match, if East and West

stay separated entities

and only poets recall talking roofs

as the place where it all began

with children telling tales

about fishes swimming up

to the stars like lit lampoons.

Hatto Fischer

10.9.2012

 

 

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