It was a meeting of music and poetry at the Bengaluru Poetry Festival 2017 that began here on Saturday. The who’s who of both fields were present at the event.
Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, with lyrical explanations and demonstrations of his own rare raags, inaugurated the fest.
Organised by Atta Galatta, the second edition of the poetry fest also saw the participation of poets Ashok Vajpeyi and Chandrashekhar Kambar. Mr. Kambar gave in to people’s request and sung one of his narrative verses that has the rhythm of the Lavani form. “Although most songs have lyric couplets and poetry as building blocks, they can get eloquent only with imaginative expressions in verse,” Mr. Kambar said, as he recalled his entry into poetry.
Ustad Khan took part in an interactive session conducted by dancer Kumudha Bharathram. He spoke of his essays on 12 musicians in his book Master on Masters.
Theatre artist Padmavathy Rao’s book Kuch Pyaar Kuch Tadap and its English version Of Love and Longing with 90 poems on love was launched at the fest. These were penned originally in Devanagari Hindi. The English versions were released as independent entities. The books come with illustrations by Ms. Rao too.
“Padmavathi Rao has worked with me for 40 years, translating my theatre work and writing dialogues for my plays. I never knew of this side of hers,” said playwright Girish Karnad after launching the book.
On for two days, the fest will host nearly 60 poets. There will be books on sale. The fest was conceptualised as a celebration of all things poetry. It aims to provide a space for verse to be engaged with — by poets, readers, performers and the audience — across forms, formats and languages.