For better or verse

The gathering, Polyphony Too, brings together six poets who will read from their completed works as well as those in progress 8212; T R Joy, Gayatri Mazumdar, Yash Merchant, Prabhanjan Mishra, Menka Shivadasani and Masud Taj. Says Arundhati Subramaniam, a local poet and co-ordinator of Chauraha, quot;This will provide a forum to promote interaction between artists with a focus on the process, not the end product.quot; While the novel has in the past decades been successfully domesticated in India, poets still complain of a publishing industry resistant to their works. Like the earlier generation of novelists, poets here feel a stigma of proving their Indianness8217; while writing in English. Rather than allowing their creative gifts to blossom in their words, she notes that many poets still feel an obligation to ornament their works with superficial Indian exotica to attract attention from publishers. This is in contrast to the new writers who no longer feel a need to apologise for themselves as Indians.

It was with Nissim Ezekiel8217;s encouragement that the Poetry Circle became a regular affair. In the past 10 years it has held various functions at the homes and offices of Ezekiel and other poets, and recently with the support of local cultural groups like the NCPA. With the lack of attention to Indian English poetry, the community of poets has turned somewhat inwards and is currently re-evaluating itself, comments Arundhati. An embattled community often finds it difficult to accept new voices and ideas, but their hope is that with the sustenance that these gatherings provide, a continuity will be maintained for a new generation.

Tonight8217;s programme is the second Polyphony sponsored by Chauraha, and Arundhati is planning a third in August 8212; commemorating the 1942 Bombay launch of the Quit India movement 8212; which will take up the theme of freedom. The freedom struggle was an event that captured the imagination of some of the most renowned Indian poets, including Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu, and the event will hopefully revive and update such creative fascination.

The creative ferment in the Indian literary scene is not completely lost on these poets however. Recently, there has been an increased interest among Mumbai8217;s English poets in Marathi and Gujarati poetry, and translations by them have become an art form in themselves. Gayatri Mazumdar, a participant in tonight8217;s programme, has for the past two years been publishing the Brown Critique, which new English poetry along with translations and commentary. The charges of unoriginality often addressed to Indians writing in English are being eroded by such interaction, and the intermingling of poetic expression by poets of different languages has contributed to a more unified sense of cultural identity in Mumbai. For example, the fertile ground that Dalit poetry in Marathi provides for the English translator holds exciting possibilities that might otherwise be unavailable to English-speaking audiences and writers.

Hence the name, Polyphony Too, which will bring together poets expressing new voices in a medium more immediately gratifying and sensual than its more notorious counterpart, the novel.

Today at the Audio-Visual Room, NCPA. Time: 6.30 pm