Thick friends, but dreamers first — well, that's how Kalpesh Acharya aka Gadru, Ajay Kadian and Poornima Laxmeshwar, founders of Poetry Social, a city-based non profit poetry concept describe themselves. While the idea rolled out in July last year, their platform has attracted ‘verse’atile Bengalureans only off late. Speaking about how the city is in dire need to go ‘offline’ over the weekend, the trio who’d be hosting their 12th free event on September 9 at 12 pm at Liber Resto Pub in Indiranagar, tells us more...
“When you really want to do something, the universe opens the doors for you. As preachy as this sounds, our journey of Poetry Social began like this. To think of poetry being so accessible and so much like a ‘common man’ was what laid the first step to this. Interestingly, Gadru (Kalpesh) joined the wagon and has been the flagbearer ever since. Ajay was coaxed by us to be a part of this team and thus, began an interesting chapter of Poetry Social, Bengaluru.
Ajay Kadian
Our counterpart in Mumbai, Maxmeet Social has been organising poetry events called 'Poetry Tuesdays’ over six years now, so we started in Bengaluru last year,” shares Poornima. The trio, who has been hosting free events ever since, believes it is the best time to start such a concept in namma ooru. “There cannot be a better place than now in Bengaluru for poetry. Pubs and poems as we know go a long way in history. To add on, there will be several lost souls like us who want to break free from the mundane routines and rekindle themselves with passion. Poetry Social gives some space and hope for people like that.
Kalpesh Acharya aka Gadru with Poorrnima
On that note – Cheers and long live poetry!” believes Kalpesh. Working professionals by the day, and poetry hosts by the weekend, Kalpesh, Ajay and Poornima have packed schedules, but are not complaining. With their 12th event all slated to rustle up a storm in the city. “From rhyme to rhythm, for us, poetry is an art which needs to relished and cherished. Hence, we want to go local. We want to take poetry everywhere and that is what we are striving to gain and the benefit is beyond the measure. If that means getting the activity to eat up all our free time, so be it. So that’s where our passion lies!” states Ajay.
Speaking about what’s next on the cards, Kalpesh aka Gadru concludes by stating, “We want to make poetry viral for now. We have collaborated poetry with theatre and would love to explore combining it with other art forms. Also, we would love to feature poets from across the country and hopefully with the support, should be able to reach lesser known voices.”
