I am so glad I registered on Twitter. It's
been 7 months that I have been in Bangalore and I have not attended any of the
city-famous events. Finally Chetan Bhagat's tweet about his session in
Bangalore Litfest was so inviting that I bunked office on Friday and left for
BLF at 4 in the evening. The event was in the other part of the city so clearly
it would have taken me 2 hours to reach there. I finally did make it 1 hour
early and it was Gulzar Saab's session that was going on.
I always felt that God has bestowed him
with the flair of words. Nobody else can so beautifully write a poetry about "smoking" or no one can so
wonderfully metaphor-ize a solar eclipse. One needs that foresight and the influence
over words, to be able to write something so astounding.
Gulzar Saab and Pavan Varma in a Jugalbandi |
Here are two of the small poems that he
read out
This one is about the Solar Eclipse
College me aisa hota thadesk ke peechhe baithe baithedheere dheere do haath saraktedheere dheere paas aateaur fir ek achanak poora haath pakad leta thamutthi me bhar leta thasuraj ne yuhi pakda hai chaand ka haath falak me aaj
Smoking
Yaad hai ek dinMere mez pe baithe baithecigarette ki dibiya par tumnechhote se ek paudhe ka eksketch banaya tha?aakar dekho, us par phool aaya hai
An English translation followed the
recitation of these two poems. The English poetry was as beautiful as these.
And even while Gulzar Saab conversed, it seemed as if it were some poetry.
"Koi
rishta sadaa ke liye nahi rehta...usko taaza karna zaroori hota hai!".. A simple
expression is layered with so many meanings and has such depth that one can
only appreciate the sheer gift of words.
While Gulzar Saab engaged the audience in a
few more poems about the SardarSarovar Dam, and translation of sonnets on
Yudhisthir and Draupadi, I slipped into a thought stream about the time when I
would attempt at poetry-writing too. I wondered how miniscule my attempts were
and how much more remained to be achieved. Only if I had the ability to put
things simply, yet beautifully, I would do justice to one of my dreams of being
an eloquent writer. If only!
The thought stream was interrupted by
another discussion about a poem which was about "use-by date" of the
medicine, written in such a way that it talked about the extreme religious
fights that still go on today.
The JugalBandi between Pavan Varma,and
Gulzar Saab and the recurrent Urdu-English recitation of poetry was a treat to
everyone. Not many were acquainted with the flow of Gulzar Saab's language, so
Mr.Varma's beautiful translations provided the quintessential relief to people
who were not well aquainted with Hindi/Urdu.
The time stood still and I wished it would
be like that forever. A beautiful winter evening, nice manicured lawns, a
comfortable chair, minimum crowd, a hot cup of tea and Gulzar Saab's poetry -
it was one of the best times I ever had.
***
I had actually come to listen to Chetan
Bhagat, because I wasn't sure about the schedule and all I knew was that CB was
to come and talk at 6.30pm. I had essentially bunked office for him. But it was,
like they say, an icing on cake that Gulzar Saab was there too and I got a nice
long time to listen to him. After Gulzar Saab left, the stage was set for
Chetan Bhagat to come. The crowd, strength of about 200 people called out his
name he appeared on the stage. Casually dressed in jeans shirt and blazer, he
looked modest and sweet like we all know him. The session was called Crossfire
and it started with his editor - Shiney Anthony asking him a few questions. He
was questioned about his South Indian connection and he admitted that he loved
South Indian women, because they are intelligent. He said, that he knew that
not many men prefer intelligent women because of certain insecurities, but for
him South Indian women are a turn on!
Chetan Bhagat in Crossfire |
He told about the few Tamil words he'd
learnt from his wife and how his kids also pick up both Tamil and Punjabi, a
little bit.
Then began the Crossfire session, and the
audience started throwing questions at CB and like he is meant to be the king
of controversy, he did give some provocative replies and irked some of the
people in the audience. One of his comments on Rahul Gandhi got him a question
from someone who had written a book about Rahul Gandhi. Probably she took
offence and questioned CB back asking why he is always making fun of Rahul
Gandhi.
He said, he is not making fun of him, there
actually do exist jokes on the internet about him, and that she should go and
check them out. She cross questioned him asking him how would he feel if there
were jokes on him, to which he replied, that there were many jokes about him
too. He said, "People make jokes about me too, I make jokes about myself
in my books, my whole life is a joke, you should read my books".
This reply got him a thunderous applause.
He was as modest and cool as ever and his replies were silent killers. It was
great to have someone deal controversies so well.
He also explained about why he writes in
plain and simple English and also quoted that "Being Simple is very
difficult". He may be a favorite amongst the literary critics, but he is
the most widely read author and he says that is what matters to him.
He is someone who has a clear vision. He
looks forward to bring about the change in the society through his writing, may
it be through books, columns or magazines. I think he is succeeding in his
mission because he a widely read columnist.
He never fails to inspire. It is always
great listening to him. His solutions and answers to questions are very simple
and approachable.
For new authors who are striving to write a
book, or are half way through, he is a great inspiration! It was a great
session with the person who is famous for creating a reading culture amongst
the youth of India.
***
The next day's agenda of BLF had another
session of Gulzar Saab which I missed, but I went for Day 3 where I heard the
first time writers speak, followed by a great discussion about Bengaluru and
India by some elite panelists namely, Shobha De, NandanNilekani, Akash
Banerjee, Pavan Varma, Dr. AnanthaMurthy, Sir Mark Tully and AkashKapoor.
It was an eventful Day -3. More in next
post! :)
***
No comments:
Post a Comment
So..what do you think?