Hear the sweet sound of poetry to celebrate women poets in Mumbai

Rasika Dugal reads from a collection of Hindi poems. Pic/Active illusions

Born and brought up in Jamshedpur where her first language was Hindi, Rasika Dugal's exposure to Punjabi was limited to the daily reading of the Guru Granth Sahib with her grandmother. It was while filming for the Partition drama, Qissa (2013), in Punjab that she decided to reacquaint herself with her mother tongue.

"The best way to learn a language is to start with poetry because it has rhythm and you sort of understand it without knowing what every word means," says the actor, who has also been a Dastangoi storyteller. This Saturday, Dugal will read eminent writer and poet Amrita Pritam's verse, Ajj Aakhaan Waris Shah Nu, at an evening of poetry readings called Tamed Talents, where actors, artistes and musicians will share the works of women poets from South Asia.

Prachi Jha and Onaiza Drabu

"When it comes to regional languages, we often live in silos. Our focus is to get people together to listen to different languages," says Onaiza Drabu, who co-founded Daak with Prachi Jha, as an initiative to present lesser-known stories and artworks from the Indian subcontinent, in engaging formats. They have co-curated the evening - featuring Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon being read by Mohammad Muneem Nazir, a women's folk song in Maithili by Priyanka Charan, noted Hindi poet and women's rights activist Mahadevi Verma's work by Saurabh Sharma, leading Malayalam author Kamala Das's verses by Ajmal Khan, as well as Gujarati and Punjabi poems by Satchit and Ajay Gulzar respectively - with founders of Harkat Studios. Drabu adds that the plan is to have poems read in their original language followed by a reading of their published English translation.

Dugal shares that such events also help her revisit poems and appreciate them in a new context. "Amrita Pritam wrote this poem as an appeal to Waris Shah [who wrote the most famous version of Heer Ranjha]. It was her reaction to what was happening to the women of Punjab during Partition, where their bodies were used as a battleground to uphold the honour of their communities. Unfortunately, it is also what's currently happening in the country. It's fascinating how a poem finds you at a time when you need it," she sums up.

ON: April 21, 7.30 pm
AT: Harkat Studios, Versova, Andheri West.
LOG ON TO: insider.in
ENTRY: Rs 330

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