Confluence of poets ‘AIR’ patriotic feelings at national meet

CHENNAI: The All India Radio, Chennai, hosted the national poets conference - a confluence of 22 poets from different parts of the country - at Kalaivanar Arangam here on Thursday. 

This is the first time since the conference was launched in 1956 that it is being held in Chennai. Contemporary poems by 22 poets in their regional languages, along with their translations in Hindi and Tamil, were presented at the symposium. The translators were eminent poets in their own right. 
Inaugurating the symposium, Governor Banwarilal Purohit recalled his most memorable reads. 

He ranked ‘Pushp ki Abhilasha’, a Hindi poem by Makhanlal Chaturvedi, that speaks about a flower and its wishes, as his top favourite, especially the last stanza, which reads in translation, ‘Just pluck me, gardener, and throw me on the road, which the brave soldiers take to give away their lives for the Motherland.’

The themes of the poems presented by the poets ranged from patriotism to the struggles of families. 
T Rajendran Deputy Director General (Engineer), All India Radio  said that a two-hour recording of this programme would be broadcast on AIR at 10 pm on January 25 on the eve of the Republic Day.