Bengaluru: The second and final day of the inaugural edition of Bangalore Poetry Festival began with the same passionate spirit that was shown on the first day with recitals and performances by Bollywood icon Piyush Mishra.
A man who wears many hats, Mr Mishra is a celebrated theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer and scriptwriter. Accompanied by a harmonium, he entertained the packed auditorium with his hits back to back. The fans kept asking for more, and he kept obliging.
His poetry, plucking at heartstrings and making the world sigh, was another aspect of his session today at the festival. His poems reflected the pickle that he finds himself in constantly, between love and work. Cleverly weaving in some political panorama as well, his poems mentioned Godhra and Vietnam. Signing off, he recited a poem from his collection, Kya Nakhra Hai which chronicles a marriage to alcohol, which leads to doom. The poem also reflects his journey and struggles with alcoholism, “It is actually a disease. Look it up. When you’re young, this happens. That is the way it is. I was just the same and I had to fight it”
Well-known poets Manohar Shetty, Arundhati Subramanium and Anjum Hasan recited with emerging names like Divas Gupta and Janet Orlene. The first edition of the poetry festival did make an impact with the audience, who thronged the auditorium on both days of the event.
The organisers from Atta Galatta0 are sure that the festival will be back next year. “With the immense positive response we’ve got this year, we will definitely make this an annual event.”
