Poetry at India Art Festival, 2016, Mumbai
Poetry at India Art Festival 2016
The cohesive hope and excitement of India Art Festival this year culminated in a wondrous multilingual poetry reading yesterday. It was compered by that magician of hearts and verse - poet Rochelle Potkar, who had draped a river around herself in multicoloured rivulets, and carried her magic wand. The evening was a dreamy far-away forest full of sounds familiar and unfamiliar, rising high, like wood smoke, engulfing all. Gujrati, Marathi and Hindi held hands with English, to dwell on subjects close to the heart. Love, belonging, friendship, desire, hope, being woman, and then, children ...children....children.....children,.....'have we forgotten where we left our children?' A poet-activist's Hindi still booms in the ears.... 'bohot kaam tha...bacchon ko chhod aye, aur bhool gaye kahan chhode the...' (not his exact words please, but what i remember)...