yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Some gems from his poems, Acknowledge the poetry lovers who have created these, put them up on the web,   Me and my fetish for holding hands, resonates here, holding hands is so, so underrated,  The "when" matters, like the "how", Munir Niyazi has also expressed this eloquently,  here ,  Let us never be busy for each other, let the "come" not leave space for " go ",  New days, love, life, hope,  If home comes, can trees be far behind,  We need to be around trees, their majesticity, there is so much there,  There is a lot to learn from the day-to-day, the seemingly small,  And, to keep doing what we believe,  Previous posts on him, here and here , 

How to teach poetry How do we introduce poetry to students and tell them what it is? Thanks to the team at The Hindu , and of course to Chandni madam.  A few weeks ago, we had organized a session on poetry for teachers. The idea was to delve deeper into poetry and discuss how best we could get children to bond better with it. The session commenced with a song and I began by asking colleagues to recall one or more film songs which, in their understanding, were laden with metaphors. The silence that followed made me wonder where I had erred. I then wrote on the board a few lines from a song to discuss the metaphors it contained. However, the participants found it difficult to connect the metaphors with the song. Most people like and listen to film songs but rarely associate them with metaphors or with any other figures of speech. Someone said that an exercise like this could suck the joy of out of songs. This left me wondering if we connect with metaphors only when we wear our t...

Ashok Vajpeyi that endearing uncle with: words at his beck and call a twinkle in his eyes a taste for kurtas a prolific literary output Some details of the set: Books in the series: 13 ISBN: ‎ 9789392228674 (Hardcover) Pages: 6,876 (Throughout Black and White Illustrations) Size: 24 cm x 16.5 cm These are books which I: open up at any time of the day, read, reread read aloud to my mother, some of these readings are followed by happy silences, am glad that the library has the entire set They have: taken me closer to poetry, to Hindi - Kedar Nath Singh got me on to reading poetry, learning Hindi - these books with their collection of poems, letters, conversations and more have helped me take the next proverbial step prompted me to take up further journeys – with the dictionary at times and also with the poets / authors mentioned therein via the interviews on the Prasar Bharti archives – Namvar Singh for example took me to Banaras, 1950’s, editing and a lot more upped t...

Teachers we never meet There is something very poetic about this image ~ Is it about two people mature with age and experience? Or, the warmth that eyes carry when poetry flourishes? Or, about that child that a few adults carry within ~  Were they trying to delicately fit a word in a line? Or, appreciating a word? a line? a word in a line? Or, talking about their unfinished poems? Or, smiling at what they are leaving behind for us?  Harivansh Rai Bachchhan wrote on seeing Gurudev Tagore That he got to know how graceful and stunning old age could be This image perhaps is equally poignant, in a slightly different way though ~ What Ashok Vajpeyi said on Kedar Nath Singh tells u s about both, “He was a poet of both presence and absence, of love and loss .. of anxieties and questions . . And he achieved in his poetic craft that which can be only called Kedar rhythm, a verbal construct uniquely his own but simultaneously communicative" Or, is it just two amazing poets?  Poets w...

  Beginning the morning at school with poetry  Nimesh Ved and Anshumalika Rai. Published at Deccan Herald on 7th December, 2021.  Warm thanks to the team at Deccan Herald.  Covid times had only the teachers attend school. After the confusions during the initial days the school focused on augmenting the capacities of the teachers. As the teachers began coming the question on how they would begin the days arose. It was agreed upon poetry. Two teachers, by rotation, would recite a poem each, to commence the activities of the day. This we initiated without too much fuss and like it happens many a time when we do not worry – things worked out well.   So, how did it go? Over a period of time the teachers moved from relatively simple poems to heavily metaphorical, from religious poetry to imager, from classical poems to those that are experimental and fresh. Similarly, the teachers focused on Hindi poetry initially but slowly also included Sanskrit, Bhojpuri...

  Few months with your creations Thank you for teaching me Hindi over these past months. Many evenings I recite your poems aloud – for mumi and I – after, of course, reading them multiple times. Despite your poems conveying so much they contained few words that I had to seek the dictionary for. This despite my abysmal levels of awareness in Hindi. You helped remove my fear of the language. Emboldened me to go deeper. This way you enabled me to take up another journey with Hindi. A language I love to converse in but for long time have been wary of the written form. As I write I recall going for Gujarati instead of Hindi during school days as well. You made me realise that poetry could be simply written. That poetry can be close to life, life around us, and not just an intellectual pursuit. Poetry was not only about love, epics, flowers, loss but also about day to day lives. Lives of people around us, trees, and others. Lives perhaps not much talked about. This simplicity made...

Of trees Rains led to a few trees falling As I walked around I saw and touched them. As I walked away from each tree I felt somewhat empty Somewhat less of me Were these only trees falling? Falling Select lines from poems suddenly came to mind Of poets I had read and re-read during recent months. Poetry has been a close friend, A friend, who has many a time, Saved me from falling. Naresh Saxena   चीज़ों के गिरने के नियम होते हैं मनुष्यों के गिरने के कोई नियम नहीं होते लेकिन चीज़ें कुछ भी तय नहीं कर सकतीं अपने गिरने के बारे में मनुष्य कर सकते हैं     Kunwar Narain   पत्तों पर पानी गिरने का अर्थ पानी पर पत्ते गिरने के अर्थ से भिन्न है जीवन को पूरी तरह पाने और पूरी तरह दे जाने के बीच एक पूरा मृत्यु-चिह्न है     Harivansh Rai Bachchan मदिरालय का आँगन देखो कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हैं जो गिरते हैं कब उठतें हैं पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर कब मदिरालय पछताता है   Kedar Nath Singh   मेरे बेटे ब...

Poetry Poems then Some of the initial memories of poems are from my days in school. Few of those poems have since stayed with me, be it the Gujarati poem by Narsinh Mehta I was taught in 3rd standard or the efforts our teacher took to discuss To The Skylark . The later during 9th standard. Schools also made me hate poems. Especially when we had to mug them up for oral examinations. I recall beginning to dislike Rabindranath Tagore. All this despite loving English. Years late when I read more about Tagore I realized how silly a folly it was. And that not many schools, even today, can boast of the spirit to discuss Where the Mind is Without Fear ! I too during days of rising to and falling off love wrote what I then thought was poetry. The other day I came across one and cringed! Poems today  At home During recent times poetry is back in life and how. Raghuvir Sahay aptly puts in in Aaj phir shuru hua   ". . आज फिर शुरू हुआ जीवन आज ...