3-day Sacred Amritsar begins on poetic note

Amritsar, February 23

The second edition of the three-day cultural festival, Sacred Amritsar, began on Friday evening with a captivating ‘mehfil’ with eminent poets Swanand Kirkire, Sarbpreet Singh, Dr Sarbjot Singh Behl and Saumya Kulshrestha keeping the audience spellbound right from the moment it began. A celebration of poetry and expression that kept wandering from subtle romanticism to thought provoking interpretation of experiences — some personal, others shared — the evening set the ball rolling for two days of non-stop cultural and creative events that would be hosted at Partition Museum, The Earth and Gobindgarh Fort.

Swanand Kirkire and Kausar Munir presented their celebrated poems and spoke of their experience of writing for self and for films, while Sarbpreet Singh, whose latest book The Sufi’s Nightingale has managed to captivate readers globally, also shared some of his insights into the progression of Punjabi poetry and Sufi traditions. The later part of the evening had a performance by Karam Rajput, a popular name in Punjabi Sufi and folk music, who with his soulful performance did his guru, Padma Shri awardee Puran Chand Wadali, proud.