I remember sometime back in the beginning of the course, they had mentioned as a passing reference a very important piece of information that Mr. Ramachandra Guha would be addressing us sometime soon. And since then I have been waiting. And i am sure so were the other Officer Trainees. There might be differing views pertaining to that but I simply love the amount of detailing and the proclivity for historical readings the man possesses. All in all reiterating the fact that in order to be successful in something, you have to give your very best.
So, finally the day dawned upon us. The LBS NAA Literary Festival 2015 was kick started yesterday and the two day extravaganza seemed pretty promising, at least from the planner which was circulated jeweled by vary many famous names like Mr. Guha himself, Anuja Chauhan, Mrinal Pandey, Ira Trivedi and others. The only disappointment probably was the vacuum created by the absence of Javed Akhtar who was also scheduled for the Kavi Sammelan event. Anyway, his larger than life shoes were filled by Dr. Saif Mahmood who is a lawyer by profession. While he was reciting some heavily worded verses in Urdu, I was pondering over the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of Court if I didn't clap loud enough or if I fell asleep amidst his recital. Jokes apart, I think he had great levels of energy and enthusiasm and ultimately that is what matters. Sharing one of the crackers....
From The power of poetry we were transported into the very delicate discussion on keeping languages alive where the participants had fairly good points to pitch and develop. Having participants from all age groups was perhaps beneficial to result into a balanced discussion. In between such serious and mature arguments what amused me was the presence of few who still are hung up with the "why only he and not he/she?" debate. With all due respect to women, it's just a figure of speech now, nothing else and all of us know that it points to both the genders collectively. This was followed by some good interactive sessions with the distinguished guests on the world of fiction and My bookshelf. The later one was really intriguing as they discussed what they like to read? The passion for reading was the flavor all around and I am sure it will spread like a contagion.
Post that we had the book signing thing and post that we had the most beautiful dance performance ever. We all know about the various forms of classical dance courtesy UPSC but we seldom get to see the best performers. And even when we do get a chance, we are not able to connect to that dance form that deeply. But this special performance titled "Sannidhi - Confluence of Indian dances" by Parwati Dutta was simply outstanding and something that we easily connected to and understood as well. She had a team of seven where each member was representing one dance form. So here with the specially composed music and superbly choreographed moves, we witnessed a mesmerizing confluence. As soon as the entire team was on stage, all OTs started to guess who represents which dance boasting their bloated Prelims Score. There were bets placed for all seven correct guesses. Looking at the stage, it felt as if, Spectrum Art and culture had come alive!
Today, was the second and concluding day of the lit fest and also the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi And Lal Bahadur Shastri which was celebrated in the morning with Bhajan recitals in remembrance of both the leaders. This was very aptly followed by a special lecture by Mr. Guha discussing the relevance of Gandhi and Ambedkar even today. And very rightly he started his talk by discussing some pointers on Lal Bahadur Shastri which in a way was a great tribute.
Post this we had various workshops ranging from Clay pottery, Calligraphy, Mithila folk painting, Art appreciation and a very interesting one on Imagination in the world of hard fact. Well the hard fact is, I should have chose some other one. Anyways, the post lunch workshops were apparently optional. And the word optional means only one thing to the OTs. But suddenly some dreams were shattered when they were called back from their rooms. In the evening, a mehfil of poetry was scheduled which apparently had a lot of prose component in it. The clear winner was a amazingly hilarious one titled "Pig". I couldn't stop myself from sharing that beautiful piece here.
It was the first of May
A lovely warm spring day
I was strolling down the street in drunken pride,
But my knees were all a-flutter,
And I landed in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
Yes, I lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts I could not utter
When a lady passing by did softly say
'You can tell a man who boozesBy the company he chooses' — And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Lastly, as this lit fest comes to an end, I confess that I have been infected a bit by the Urdu Shayari and listening to it has been a pleasure. At this juncture, I wish all the fellow OTs best of luck for the 10-day trek in the Himalayas and would like to end this post by one gem from Galib...
मोहोब्बत में नहीं है फर्क जीने और मरने का,
उसी को देख कर जीते है जिस काफिर पर दम निकले।
So, finally the day dawned upon us. The LBS NAA Literary Festival 2015 was kick started yesterday and the two day extravaganza seemed pretty promising, at least from the planner which was circulated jeweled by vary many famous names like Mr. Guha himself, Anuja Chauhan, Mrinal Pandey, Ira Trivedi and others. The only disappointment probably was the vacuum created by the absence of Javed Akhtar who was also scheduled for the Kavi Sammelan event. Anyway, his larger than life shoes were filled by Dr. Saif Mahmood who is a lawyer by profession. While he was reciting some heavily worded verses in Urdu, I was pondering over the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of Court if I didn't clap loud enough or if I fell asleep amidst his recital. Jokes apart, I think he had great levels of energy and enthusiasm and ultimately that is what matters. Sharing one of the crackers....
पैदा हुआ वकील तो शैतान ने कहा,
लो आज हम भी साहिब-ए-औलाद हो गए।
From The power of poetry we were transported into the very delicate discussion on keeping languages alive where the participants had fairly good points to pitch and develop. Having participants from all age groups was perhaps beneficial to result into a balanced discussion. In between such serious and mature arguments what amused me was the presence of few who still are hung up with the "why only he and not he/she?" debate. With all due respect to women, it's just a figure of speech now, nothing else and all of us know that it points to both the genders collectively. This was followed by some good interactive sessions with the distinguished guests on the world of fiction and My bookshelf. The later one was really intriguing as they discussed what they like to read? The passion for reading was the flavor all around and I am sure it will spread like a contagion.
Post that we had the book signing thing and post that we had the most beautiful dance performance ever. We all know about the various forms of classical dance courtesy UPSC but we seldom get to see the best performers. And even when we do get a chance, we are not able to connect to that dance form that deeply. But this special performance titled "Sannidhi - Confluence of Indian dances" by Parwati Dutta was simply outstanding and something that we easily connected to and understood as well. She had a team of seven where each member was representing one dance form. So here with the specially composed music and superbly choreographed moves, we witnessed a mesmerizing confluence. As soon as the entire team was on stage, all OTs started to guess who represents which dance boasting their bloated Prelims Score. There were bets placed for all seven correct guesses. Looking at the stage, it felt as if, Spectrum Art and culture had come alive!
Today, was the second and concluding day of the lit fest and also the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi And Lal Bahadur Shastri which was celebrated in the morning with Bhajan recitals in remembrance of both the leaders. This was very aptly followed by a special lecture by Mr. Guha discussing the relevance of Gandhi and Ambedkar even today. And very rightly he started his talk by discussing some pointers on Lal Bahadur Shastri which in a way was a great tribute.
Post this we had various workshops ranging from Clay pottery, Calligraphy, Mithila folk painting, Art appreciation and a very interesting one on Imagination in the world of hard fact. Well the hard fact is, I should have chose some other one. Anyways, the post lunch workshops were apparently optional. And the word optional means only one thing to the OTs. But suddenly some dreams were shattered when they were called back from their rooms. In the evening, a mehfil of poetry was scheduled which apparently had a lot of prose component in it. The clear winner was a amazingly hilarious one titled "Pig". I couldn't stop myself from sharing that beautiful piece here.
It was the first of May
A lovely warm spring day
I was strolling down the street in drunken pride,
But my knees were all a-flutter,
And I landed in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
Yes, I lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts I could not utter
When a lady passing by did softly say
'You can tell a man who boozesBy the company he chooses' — And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Lastly, as this lit fest comes to an end, I confess that I have been infected a bit by the Urdu Shayari and listening to it has been a pleasure. At this juncture, I wish all the fellow OTs best of luck for the 10-day trek in the Himalayas and would like to end this post by one gem from Galib...
मोहोब्बत में नहीं है फर्क जीने और मरने का,
उसी को देख कर जीते है जिस काफिर पर दम निकले।
3 comments:
Lovely read as usual. I love how your writings are getting more and more inspirational and mature over the years. :)
See if you could follow @Rekhta via Twitter... They're doing a splendid job in promoting the sweetness of Urdu!
You haven't met Ruskin Bond yet, have you?
@Mariya Thank You, you were the inspiration to start with! :)
@Prathibha I met him once. Sweet guy. :)
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