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Journalism of Courage
Once upon a time in the 8217;70s in Sheffield, 15-year-old Daljit Nagra would work at his father8217;s grocery shop by the day and pen songs at night. Inspired by The Beatles, The Kinks and The Clash, the British-Punjabi boy wrote songs about being economically disadvantaged, a subject far removed from the poems he would eventually write 15 years later. In India to tour with his award-winning first collection of poems Look We Have Coming To Dover! Tranquebar, Rs 150, Nagra speaks enthusiastically about growing up in England, being Punjabi, being a school teacher and above all, being a poet.
8220;My father worked in a crockery
While reading the works of Shakespeare and Milton, Nagra noticed how the course did not include a single brown-skinned or coloured author or poet. 8220;I felt that there was nobody speaking for me. I began writing my verses more out of a need to tell the history of a people, and to tell it the way it happened8221; says Nagra.
Look We Have Coming To Dover! became the first ever collection of poems to be picked up by Britain8217;s most renowned poetry publishers, Faber and Faber, after the title poem won the Forward Prize for best individual poem in 2004. In his 31 poems, Nagra writes of the British-Punjabi experience in English, Punglish and Punjabi-accented English taking the reader along a riotous ride through themes dealing with racism, identity, alienation, poems that range from laugh-out-loud to quiet and sombre.
Once a closet poet, today Nagra performs his poetry for charity readings and schools, switching accents and mannerisms with ease.
Nagra and Jeet Thayil to duel with words at Prithvi Theatre at 7 pm today.
