Poet Santosh Bakaya Talking on Poetry With Maria Miraglia

MARIA MIRAGLIA: When did you approach poetry?

SANTOSH BAKAYA: Till the sixth standard, I had no idea I could write poetry.  Then there came a girl in mid-session who would sit on the last bench in the class and scribble away. This stoked my curiosity, so I dared to ask her. “What do you keep writing?” She told me that she was writing a limerick. I did not know what a limerick was, so I went home and asked my dad. He told me that it was a five line verse with the rhyme scheme of aabba. Then there was no stopping me and I started churning out one limerick after another. So it was that girl who started me on my writing career, and the first poem that I wrote was about a haunted fort, where owls hooted and the trees rustled eerie tunes.  I was so fascinated by the limerick rhyme scheme that I wrote my poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi in aabba rhyme scheme.

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TALKING WITH POET BASUDEB CHAKRABORTI

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

BASUDEB CHAKRABORTI: Poetry as we understand it in conventional and traditional ways is in no way essential to our life. A man can survive without reading a poem throughout his life. Writing or reading habit for poetry is not the instinct for self-preservation. There is no apparent relationship between the Survival of the fittest and poetic sensibilities. I do refer in this context not only to the Biological evolution but also to the Social evolution or Social Darwinism. Human life is a relentless struggle not only at the physical and environmental level but also at the ethical, intellectual and social level.  Let me refer to Herbert Spencer’s ethical evolution and particularly Spencer’s pure Laissez-Faire ideology that is of minimal governmental interference in the financial and societal relationships among individuals in a society.  In this connection let me refer to the name of Leslie Stephen who was an offshoot of Comte’s Positivism in England. The Science of Ethics Stephen wrote. This overwhelming policy of the 19th century England also influenced the other side of the Atlantic. For example, we can refer to the deregulation of the postal services in the Unites States. The implementation of this policy has result in the all-out growth and the development not only of individuals but also of society. It is the ideal Government “that governs least”. Apparently, it has nothing to do with poetry. I do hereby underline the adverbial word ‘Apparently’.

TALKING WITH POET AMPAT KOSHY

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

AMPAT KOSHY: Literature and poetry are definitely essential to life. They sharpen our skills of expressing things better using language and also help us to socialize better thereby as well as feel less lonely. This is clear from the general history of mankind where one started with verse and poetry and prose was only a later development. Poetry was considered in Greece as either something that made you godlike, a sub creator as Tolkien puts it later, or a problem for rulers with a subversive nature in its being primarily imaginative thus, creative. Every country or language and region has it favourite poet and traces the beginning of its entry into world culture with that figure’s works usually be it Homer or Pushkin or the sages who wrote the hymns of the Rig Veda. These poets and their work begin civilization, and build its culture and define it. The same with the writers of the Bible for the Hebrews or Chaucer, Spencer and Shakespeare for England etc. All poets.

TALKING WITH POET JERNAIL SINGH ANAND

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

JERNAIL SINGH ANAND:  Poetry is a part of the refining process of human soul, which elevates human perceptions, and finally ends up improving the quality of thought and social interaction. Literature has always stood for higher values of life. History is only half the truth, as it records only the happenings which took place at the empirical level. Literature deals with what happened in the mind of men, who suffered through the ages.  I believe that poetry, like any other art, represents its times. It is a byproduct of the social and political stratosphere. Therefore, it is a powerful source to understand any epoch of history. Finally, it can be said that literature is the unedited version of the history of an epoch.

TALKING WITH POET GOPAL LAHIRI

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

GOPAL LAHIRI: Literature or Poetry is like a mirror. It reflects the poet’s thought process, state of mind and ideas. At the same time, it also helps identify the state of society. The opinions, beliefs, dogmas and feelings shared through verse, each with a different interpretation, collectively, paint a larger canvas of the state of the society. Yet, at the same time, poetry can be both abstract and thought-provoking. In my opinion, a poet should be truthful with oneself and express his or her views without fear. One of the poetry’s most appealing elements can be the mixture of observations and ideas. Here the poet reaches out to the world and poetry. Poems are not really written; they just happen as a reward of listening to inside and the surrounds. The sensory images that arrive and stay when we are open to the world around us. One can appreciate poetry from a moment in time. That moment when finally, instead of being asked to heal and forgive, they are allowed the vengeance, the rage that is rightfully ours. Since time immemorial, the poets are conscientious souls of the society persuading a vision, a reverie, a passion, inspiring the commoners and encouraging them to cross any hurdle or to provide solace.

TALKING WITH POET ASHOK K. BHARGAVA

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

ASHOK K. BHARGAVA: Literature has allowed us to step outside our sentiments, release our minds, and move in the expansive world created by words. The history of mankind becomes alive only when looked at through the prism of a poem, a song, a dogma of our tenderness, otherwise it is just a ruthless story of selfish conquests and destruction of the vanquished.

TALKING WITH POET SUNIL SHARMA

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

SUNIL SHARMA: Thanks for the opportunity of conversing with one of the finest writers and editors to-day who is in the vanguard of promoting serious writing of writers from across the world through his journal and own poetic output— an impressive feat by the way and sustained so long! As a devotee of the arts, my answer is obviously a “Yes” to this frequently-asked question. Lit—poetry being part thereof—is the supply of the pure breath in a smoggy city—and essential to our well-being and overall wellness. Regarding its relevance and relations to civilizational story and history, right from the Homeric dawn to the high-tech New Millennium, poetry has kept on marching from being oral to documented to oral. Performance poetry is back and in popular demand. So the Homeric tradition of oral rendering has returned in a big way! Poetry, recitation, performance—they are largely back to the original form, although in a new form and medium like virtual reading or video reading or as visual art, kind of multimedia—for better connect and impact, more urgently in these Covid-19 times. In a way, poetry is the heart of civilization and culture. New lyrics will always be popular and hummed by the majority even in the post-industrial and mass societies. Songs will never get out of fashion—and circulation.

TALKING WITH POET SMRUTI RANJAN MOHANTY

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literature or poetry is really essential in our life? If so why? And how does it relate to the general history of mankind?

SMRUTI RANJAN MOHANTY: Yes. Literature is the mirror of the society.  It reflects the predicament, sorrow and happiness of man. Literature over the years have faithfully reflected the then society vividly. As such literature is very much related to the history of mankind