Use poetry to heal India's troubled zones : Culture General

New Delhi, April 5 A leading poet and author says it is important to encourage poetry in India's troubled regions - because it has the power to heal.

H.K. Kaul, who helped set up The Poetry Society (TPS), said in an interview here that this had already been experimented in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the country's northeast.

'We have organised a number of workshops in Kashmir and one in the northeast. What we saw is that children express their anguish, their feelings on delicate issues with a lot of poignancy. It's the best way to heal,' Kaul told IANS.

The author also pointed out that the education system today was such that it curbed the child's creative spirit with extreme competition.

'Children must be encouraged to write or be involved in some form of art, be it music or painting. It helps one to grow into a thinking individual and is a great stress buster,' he said.

Can a poet survive only as a poet in India? Kaul felt it was not so easy. So, to encourage the literary form, he and a couple of others got together to form TPS in 1984.

Since then, the society has flourished and commands more than 1,000 members.

With the aim to promote Indian poetry and poets both in India and abroad and to encourage budding talent, TPS has been engaged in a number of activities.

Kaul said: 'Every year we pick three states and organise poetry competitions. This year we are covering Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Other than that we organise an all India poetry competition for children in 12-19 group.'

A poet, author and information specialist, Kaul has more than 40 books to his credit among which 'Firdaus in Flames', his collection of poems on Kashmir, is well known.

Just back from the northeast poetry festival organised by the society, Kaul said that it was important to encourage poetry writing in disturbed areas because of its healing power.

Coming back to Indian poetry, he said the main problem Indian poets faced was that of distribution of their published work throughout the country - if it got published at all.