Premasri points to a growing campaign for land redistribution spearheaded by Dalit women in Andhra Pradesh:
Recognizing the the need to make their voices heard, dalit women in Andhra Pradesh are rising up and demanding their rights by filing applications for ownership of unused land. To date, over 25,000 applications have been filed by women in [...]
Archive for the 'Poetry' Category
‘Gandhi’s spell’
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Activism, Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, History, Human Rights, Poetry and Women. 0 CommentsA Valentine to the City
Published by February 25th, 2008 in Caste, Community, Culture, Indiaspora, Literature, Patriarchy, Personal, Poetry, Politics, Society, Spotlight Series and Women. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 19 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
A Valentine to the City
————————
Sharanya Manivannan
Sometimes, I hate this city. I don’t deny that. There is so much to hate here. It is merciless. A crude, cruel, unforgiving bitch of a city. The meanness of its people. Sycophancy, moral (dis)order, parochialism [...]
Gargi H would like to know whatever happened to democracy:
is it banned or something?
i dint hear anyone using that word lately.
or does it really exist,
coz i just have a faded memory
of reading that
in my long lost history textbooks.
Gargi seems to post poetry mostly- among the poems that caught my attention, here are a few lines [...]
Raaji’s poetic take on the horrifying New Year’s eve incident.
Lessons from the Renaissance
Published by January 6th, 2008 in Art, Business, Culture, History, India, Literature, Music, Poetry and Spotlight Series. 0 Comments[This is Essay #12 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for archives.]
Lessons from the Renaissance
———————————
JK
In 1503, the much awaited clash of the titans was to take place in the Salone dei Cinquecento, the imposing chamber of Palazzo Vecchio in Italy. Piero Soderini, an Italian statesman commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint Battle [...]
Vijay Nair transcreates a poem, originally written in Malayalam by Sohrab:
It’s a Poem
that’s climbing the stairs,
inebriated.
A while ago, it was at the grocer’s
Before that, at the Town Hall
It wears silence as a virtue
Keeps laughter at bay
Doesn’t bend knees or wash face
Doesn’t know how to sit
Its sprawled on the road now,
after a plunge down the [...]
Khoya Khoya Chand- the Majaz Connection
Published by December 7th, 2007 in Cinema and Poetry. 1 CommentAt the Edge discovers a connection between Khoya Khoya Chand and the incendiary Urdu poet Majaz.
Jee mein aata hai murda sitare noch loonIdhar bhi nooch loon udhar bhi noch loonEk do ka zikar kya mein sare nooch loonI had a feeling about these lines when I first heard the song, a feeling that made me [...]
The Juggernaut pens an eloquent ballad for his beloved. Lets just say he chose a different rhythm for his verse from the iambic pentameter:
Forget my past for my life is MARKOVIAN
Forgive my follies i could have been NAIVE BAYESIAN
BACK-PROPAGATE my love ,from this misery, set me free
My life swings in the branch of your DECISION [...]
Rahul Banerjee translates a few poems by Vaharu Sonawane, an adivasi poet from Western India, and points to more translations available on the internet.
My tattered quilt
soiled.Inside the quilt I remain
suffocatedat
its sour smell nose
twitching up and down
turning from one side to the other
nose buried in the quilt I kept
suffering its sour smell.
In this same quilt
ancestors had [...]
On Kamala Das
Published by October 30th, 2007 in Feminism, India, Literature, Poetry, Women and sexuality. 2 CommentsRajesh discusses the way women writers are seen in India, focusing on the works of Kamala Das.
That her private life being debated threadbare even after she had turned seventy three should give us enough insight into the iron cast template for an Indian writer who happens to be a woman. However if you stick to [...]
And death looks on with a casual eye
Published by October 29th, 2007 in Caste, Culture, Dalit, Democracy, Government, Human Rights, India, Justice, Media, Poetry, Prejudice, Religion, Secularism, Society and Women. 2 CommentsSunny deplores the coverage (or lack of it) in the mainstream media in the U.K., and calls it ‘horrendously lame’:
There’s two points to make here. Firstly, that for progressives in Britain, India’s continual denial of justice to Sikhs and Muslims over politically-motivated riots in 1984 and 2002 should constantly feature in any discussion, to the [...]
‘We won the nails..’
Published by October 25th, 2007 in Dalit, Poetry, Prejudice and Women. 0 CommentsIndira Jalli questions the scholarly refusal to allow Dalits to identify themselves:
Your home–the nation–is
Clean and spacious now
Dalits are neither subjects to be retrieved
Nor objects to be analyzed
If we want to claim our subjecthood
We have to revive (?!) ourselves
As chandalas, mletchas
Or at least harijans
If we choose to stand as Dalits
We do not gather the
Surplus value of [...]
“Jaise Har Dil Pe Hai Eid Ki Khushi”
Published by October 14th, 2007 in Poetry, Religion and Society. 0 CommentsThe fascinating Hindi blog Dhai Aakhar has a post by Nasiruddin on Nazir Akbarabadi’s poem on Eid. Nazir wrote Urdu verse in a folk idiom and hence for a long time was not considered a poet at all.
Annie Zaidi captures the moments that wavered between the sublime and the ridiculous at a mushaira at the Jamia Milia.
Once seated inside, the roar filtered in every few minutes. Cries of murdabad. Cries of angry, impatient, excited youth. Frightening cries. And from behind the empty stage’s curtains, a firm, polite voice repeatedly requested the waiting [...]
Etching Rebellion in Verse
Published by October 8th, 2007 in Activism, Adivasi, Language, Poetry and Politics. 0 CommentsRahul Banerjee recounts some of the verses of the Bhils, and notes how contemporary struggles have been etched in verse.
Some of the modern Bhili poets have used the traditional style and put in new revolutionary lyrics and this has been most effective in mobilising the Bhil masses to rebellion. The greatest of them all are [...]
Indira Jalli, Dalit feminist, faces ‘the’ interview board:
“Do not go there with cynical mind”
Advised one Professor
Who did midwifery to human rights
And also who supervised a surgery of separating siamese twins
Called civil and political rights in Andhra!
When I asked him how to make my dalit feminism acceptable
Enough to ‘the’ interview board!
Anthology of Dalit Poetry - capable translators required in all Indian languages
Published by August 21st, 2007 in Books, Dalit, Language and Poetry. 9 CommentsDr. K. Purushotham, Associate Professor of English, Kakatiya University, has undertaken the challenging task of bringing out an anthology of Dalit Poetry. In his own words:
I am planning to bring out an anthology of Dalit Poetry in English translation from different languages of India. This task cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of the [...]
let it rain upon me,
I who knows so
many types and shades of ochre,
because I intend to
live no matter what
no matter where
and I will never ask
why if I am
always reminded how
That’s from Duende (The Gypsy Prayer), a poem by Sharanya Manivannan who is working on her first novel, Constellation of Scars.
On Translating the Progressives
Published by July 7th, 2007 in Literature, Poetry and Politics. 0 CommentsNakul Krishna writes on translating the writers of the PWA (Progressive Writers’ Association) and also translates some lines by Viqaar Ambalavi
They eat the workers’ share
(barking at the working man)
work them dead by day
(drain them of their tears by night)
and their hungry children wail
(and [...]
Hemant Sareen interviews Jeet Thayil:
It’s a pleasure to be asked such a question, because it means you hear poetry as speech. [Not] just [as] words on a page. Reason why lots of us don’t hear poetry is because a legion of school teachers come between us and the poems. They tell us that poetry has [...]
Mousumi Karmakar has a number of renditions of Rabindra Sangeet, with translations in English (the posts are dated, but I think worth a visit on the 146th anniversary of Tagore’s birth).
Link via Indianwriting
Shahnawaz Warsi introduces us to Dr.Naseem us Zafar Baqri, a doctor who is also an accomplished poet:
zakhm e ahsaas na hijrat na safar maaNgegA
ye musaafir to sarai nahi ghar maaNgegA
shahzada abhi kamsin hai to phooloN pe hain paoN
kal jawaaN hogA to insanO ke sir maaNgegA
Is he talking about Rahul Gandhi?
Sufi Poetry Blog Carnival
Published by May 5th, 2007 in Announcement, Poetry, Religion and Secularism. 1 CommentSadiq Alam is hosting a Sufi Poetry Carnival at his blog Inspirations and Creative Thoughts. If you admire Sufi poetry, do participate to make Indian presence felt.
In Sacred Remembrance of Divine, Tiel Aisha Ansari and me, Sadiq will be hosting the Sufi Poetry Blog Carnival on May 28th. Blog Carnival is collection of blog/site links [...]
Small Talk reviews the book ‘A Poem for CRY’, a collection of poems by famous Indians.
There are some amazing Urdu poems (thank god for the translations) - Shabana Azmi’s choice is a poem of her father’s as is Amitabh Bachan’s; and Yash Chopra chooses a Sahir Ludhianvi one. Kaifi Azmi’s poem is particularly moving. It [...]
Karbala and Hind
Published by April 23rd, 2007 in History, Poetry, Religion and Secularism. 9 CommentsA clan of Brahmins from the Punjab are said to have fought in the battle of Karbala on the side of Hussain. The Dutts (like in Sunil Dutt) trace their ancestry to this clan. I was reminded of this reading this couplet by Indian (the post has couplets in Urdu and romanized Urdu, no English [...]
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