Realising a vision

Nowhere do the blind feel the impact more painfully than in the appreciation of a great many of the finest songs and poems. For hundreds of years,men and women have turned to poetry to express their innermost longings and desires. To embellish their verses,poets introduced metaphors and similes dripping with colours,which,for the blind,have been like huge holes punched through a masterpiece.

Troubled by this apparent thoughtlessness that the poet community has for generations displayed,an association of Marathi poetry lovers in Pune swore to do their bit to dismantle the barricades that prevent the blind-by-birth from fully enjoying poetry. For over a year,a motley crowd of poets has been putting together a collection of poems,whose lines intentionally skirt any reference to visual imagery. Last Sunday in a college hall in Pune,this group,which calls itself Kaviteche Gaon (Marathi for Village of Poems),brought their efforts to fruition when they released a CD titled Ye na tu sakhya (Come,my darling,I’m waiting) containing a selection of the songs.

At the launch,when those songs were set to tune and played to accompanying music. Compositions were set to a variety of music including jazz and fusion. Contributors came from all walks of life with varied themes. The stage backdrop of banyan trees and huts made it feel like an informal gathering of friends in a village.

“ Veghla hota bahana,kal ratri mogryacha,Gandh hi hota nirala,kal ratri mogrycha..” (Yesterday night,the mogra flower had a special feel,Yesterday night too,the mogra flower’s scent felt special..)went the first few lines of a romantic poem by Santosh Badgujar,an engineer working in a German-based manufacturing company,which were sung by Jitendra Abhyankar and set to music by well-known music director Satyajeet Kelkar. In the poem,life appears refreshingly different to the besotted lover; even the mogra in bloom casts a spell as never before. The verses capture nature’s energy and beauty in other ways,but the descriptions are without a speck of colour.

Other professionals who contributed to the making of the album include music director Prashant Kulkarni and singers Swapnaja Lele and Yogita Godbole of Saregama fame.

To underscore this point,the group had invited Meera Badve,director of Nivant Andhamukta Vikasalaya at the launch. Badve narrated an incident linked to her visits to Baba Amte’s Ashram. On her first visit,she was bowled over by the performance of a troupe of blind dancers. Years later,when she visited the Ashram again,she was doubly amazed to find that the artistes remembered her by her voice and by the feel of her hand.

All contributions were critically examined by a screening committee. Some songs were rejected,others were sent back to the participants with suggestions for making changes. “I got my poems checked by my friends before giving it to the committee for screening,” says Mahendra Kulkarni,a Mumbai-based businessman whose contributions feature in the CD.

Though the CD is now out,Rahul Deshpande,one of the main motivators behind the initiative,feels that unless more in the music circuit make a conscious attempt to keep the needs of the challenged in mind,this would just go down as an one-off event. “If there was an orchestra,I’m sure double the number would have turned up,” Deshpande said. “This is just a beginning.”