An ode to Hindi poetry

Day two of Panchkula Art and Literary Festival (an endeavour by Rumour Books and Satluj Public School) saw significantly reduced crowds, though not so much the authors, with students filling up rows of empty chairs during some of the sessions.

Nevertheless, the session Pulling The Plug on Punjabi Cinema, as attended by Amardeep Gill, Gurinder Dimpy, Inderjit Nikku and Harish Verma and moderated by Savita Bhatti, raised some topical and much needed issues pertaining this region’s cinema. Another session had Hindi poetry for moot point. The saving grace is familiar names from the world of literature including Jaishree Misra, Shinie Antony, Hukum Thakur and Tulsi Raman, among others.

So do we need a session on Hindi poetry to figure or point out as to why poetry itself, all the more Hindi poetry, isn’t as thriving a part of literature today. “We have English medium schools and influence of English at a scale which was not there even during British Era,” opines Tulsi Raman, once off the stage citing reasons for Hindi taking a backseat to English.

Having penned two books on Hindi poetry and a book on the socio- cultural study of Lahaul valley, he adds, “But all is not lost. The states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and to some extent Uttar Pradesh, Hindi literature is doing really well. All the big publishers publish Prem Chand and he sells like anything.” Some ray of hope. —TNS