Use poetry to heal India's troubled zones
|
|
|
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. (c) Indo-Asian News Service
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related News
US author Dave Eggers wins prestigious French literary prize Paris - American author Dave Egger's novel What Is the What has won the 2009 Prix Medicis for best foreign work of fiction, the Medici jury announced Wednesday. A fictional reworking of a true story told to the author by the book's hero, What Is the ...
OBITUARY: Jean Francois Bergier, Swiss WWII historian, dead at 77 Geneva - Jean-Francois Bergier, the Swiss historian who headed the independent commission established in the 1990s to determine Switzerland's role during World War II, died Thursday at the age of 77, RSR radio reported. The independent group of exper...
Putin to recount memories of fall of Berlin Wall in documentary Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was working in East Germany in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, is to recount his experiences of that time in a new documentary, reported Russian newspaper Kommersant Wednesday. Putin was based in th...
Taiwan museum sets condition for showing Chinese treasures in Japan Taipei - Taiwan on Tuesday said it is willing to allow the National Palace Museum (NPM) to hold an exhibition in Japan, but it must guarantee that the rare Chinese treasures are not seized by China. Chen Tiao-ho, a Foreign Ministry official in charge...
Jewish treasures go on display in one of Europe's oldest synagogues Erfurt, Germany - The old synagogue in the eastern German city of Erfurt, founded around the year 1100, was officially opened as a museum housing Jewish treasure and artefacts on Monday. The Jewish house of worship, constructed near the town hall in ...
Rejuvenated or infantilized? - the debate over cross-over books Hamburg - It is increasingly becoming regarded as cool and youthful for an over 40-year-old to read a fantasy novel aimed at the teenager market. Whether it is the vampire Edward in the Stephanie Meyers series or the Inkworld trilogy from Cornelia Fu...
Cultural interpreter opens minds about other religions, people Hamburg - Ayhan Cantay calls himself a culture opener. The job he does in a public school district in Hamburg, Germany might be more accurately described as cultural interpreter. Who among you knows Christianity? Cantay, 31, asks a classroom of ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|