Decoding romance and pain on a rain-drenched evening

Amritsar, December 12

With the dip in mercury and grey sky providing for a perfect setting, Majha House, organized an evening of poetry and music. The evening had Dr Amit Ranjan from Delhi, Dr Sarbjot Behl from the Guru Nanak Dev University and Dr Gurpartap Khairah from the Hindu College, Amritsar, taking the stage to recite their poems in front of an eclectic mix of audience.

Introducing Dr Amit Ranjan, the guest poet for the event, founder of the Majha House, Pretti Gill, said Amit, a lecturer, had written his thesis on John Lang, the lawyer of Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi, and had also received scholarships from Fulbright, Endeavour and Inlaks. He read poetry from his debut anthology of poems ‘Find me Leonard Cohen, I am almost thirty’.

The other performers, Dr Sarbjot Behl, Dean, Students Welfare at GNDU, is a prolific poet. Dr Gurpartap is an associate professor and also a writer and has had a collection of short stories published in an anthology titled ‘Obsession – Eternal stories of life and death.’

The event started with a conversation between Amit and Gurpartap, where the two engaged in decoding, deconstructing and understanding Amit’s poetry. Ranjan’s book was acclaimed by the critics for its word play and sardonic humour with a hidden meaning. The talk was peppered with dramatic readings of Amit’s poems. Dr Sarbjot Behl deepened the mood of the evening when he changed the language and tone with his poems in Urdu and Punjabi, romance and pain being the central themes of his poetry.

Gurpartap’s poem Rooh (soul) was a plea to devote time for the cultivation of the soul. They were accompanied on the guitar by Niraj Chaudhary that added to the sombre mood with playful notes. —TNS