Yellow Room poetry reading

Glancing through the Pune Times Mirror yesterday I happened upon a notice about a poetry reading in the city the same evening. It was going to be tight since we already had a Sunday Mass slotted at the same time at St. Xaviers church in Camp.

Nevertheless I tried to focus on prayer and did not check my phone till 6.45 p.m. The ad titled 'Share your poems' (below) had said it would be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

I called Kamlesh and asked if I could come. He greeted me warmly and encouraged me to be part of the reading. 'We go up to 9,' he said.  The rickshaw ride from City Church, Camp to Symbiosis College on Senapati Bapat road was spent with me frenetically

forwarding links to my poems from my blog to Kamlesh. All I had was my phone. Books containing my poems were at our place in Navi Mumbai from where we had driven down a few days back.

Queenie and I discussed the name of the place and wondered what it would be like. The Book Establishment Cafe turned out to be an intimate setting for poetry with books, poets, and coffee amid the gathering twilight.

The ad was so well designed. I wanted to take a leaf out of its book. 'The aim is not to judge how good the work is, but to encourage everyone to express themselves through poetry and literature and share it with others,' it said. There was a cover charge of Rs.150.

Kamlesh welcomed us at the door on the fourth floor. We were a bit taken aback that scores of youth were exiting at that moment. Unperturbed Kamlesh beckoned us to take our seats for the next session.
 A hush fell over the space as we were about to start. We heard some fine poems. An abiding theme was that of depression and loneliness. One poem was about being separated from a friend. Another was a poem addressed to a feeling of loneliness. Still another beautifully captured the attempts by friends to pull a person out of depression.The sole lady who read in the group read a poem about the unreasonable (and often contradictory) expectations on modern women. She championed the space of the single woman saying that she was an assemblage of memes and wisps of social media which have changed her life. One short poem was about the beautiful eyelash of a young girl in a train. All the poems received comments and encouragement.

I began with my poem 'Sea in the Sky' - an assemblage of SMSs --  and followed it up with 'May Queen.'  As we were leaving (it was almost 9 p.m) one of the ladies who had just come to listen, ran up to us. She offered me my purse which I had left behind. It reminded me of another poem I had written called 'Bits of Paper.'  The poem was written on a train. I compared the currency notes with the wisps of paper on which I wrote my lines. At the end of the poem I ask which will endure more.

We said our goodbyes warmly. Queenie and me had to head to Maratha Samrat, Camp where we were meeting family for dinner. Criss-crossing the city at night was never more enjoyable. Thank you Pune!