From mushairas to poetry slams

Bengaluru: “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” — William Wordsworth. A line that signifies the essence of poetry. Mr. Akhil Katyal, Delhi based poet, translator, teacher and blogger, whose positivity is infectious, absolutely agrees. “Poetry provides that little stillness. In it you will find answers when you want to know why. It defies the straight jacket logic, it speaks more.” Mr. Katyal is in town for the Bengaluru Poetry festival on 6th and 7th of August at the Leela Palace.

One of those kids in school that devoured every poem in the syllabus even before the commencement of the yearly session, his love affair with words began early. “It captivated me, just the drumming of the words, the rhymes.” He says, reminiscing his schooldays where he was a voracious reader of not just English but Hindi poetry as well.

A Delhi University alumnus, he credits his baby steps to Miss. Lalitha Subhu, his professor, who mentored him and gave him confidence to move forward. Coming from an elitist English educational background in Lucknow, moving to Delhi was an experience that shaped him as a poet.

His early brushes with poetry were in Kavi Sammelans, Diwali Utsavs and Mushairas in his small community, but now, he had access to a larger array of poets and poetry readings. “Suddenly, there was a whole new world to explore. Translations, poems in different languages and different dialects, all out there, were waiting for me to find them.”

A blogger first, he says that social media today has had a great positive impact on the poetry scene. It makes it more accessible and it will always have an audience, big or small. The fear of deteriorating quality is a myth.

“There will always be great poets, mediocre poets and bad poets. It’s just a platform. It's an age old anxiety, like when the printing press was introduced”. He says, shrugging off any negativity towards social media poets.

Mr. Katyal feels that one doesn't have to be published on paper to be a poet; it is only an avenue of publication. The poetry community, once small and exclusive has seen an immense growth in the past five years. With a wave of blogs on the rise, instagram poetry, poetry slams, poetry meets, open mike readings, the poetry scene in the city is flourishing. So which is the best way to go? He says, “Write from the heart, recollect all those emotions and craft them, discipline them. It's the combination of these that make you combust as a poet.” The Bangalore Poetry Festival was a result of this combustion, he says. “The organizers have grabbed this moment. It's perfect.There is not only energy but also awareness.”

He is currently working in collaboration with Mallika Taneja, a theatre artist whose short film; “Thoda Dhyaan Se” caught his eye. Currently at the first stage of the project, it is called Memory Constitutes Us. “It is about the cycle of memories that we are constantly put through, of outrage and then silence.” He informs, visibly excited as it is the one medium he had always wanted to explore. Apart from his book of poems, Night Charge Extra, which was published last year, he also enjoys translating the works of Dorothy Parker, Langston Hues, Manglesh Dabral and Amrita Pritam, some of which he will be performing at inaugural edition of the festival tomorrow “I hope to see a lot of variety in the poetry sessions tomorrow as people are coming in from all corners of India. It will be a very interesting mix of culture and languages.”

Bengaluru Poetry Festival to be held at Leela Palace Hotel
10 - 10.45 AM -Javed Akhtar reads a selection of poetry by his grandfather Muztar Khairabadi and talks about his own poetic journey.
4.30 - 5.15 PM - Varun Gandhi talks about the pauses and silences in his verse.