Poetry session held in Gaya

GAYA: Mumbai- based English poet Ashwini Kumar regaled the audience at a literary evening in Gaya town on Tuesday night with his literary creations.

The literary evening organised by a group of creative writers was held at MI Plaza Hall, where a select group enjoyed

poetry

as well as fiction.

Ashwini, who teaches political science at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, depicted Banaras as a timeless city where both the physical and the mystical exist like conjoined twins in his much-acclaimed poem on Banaras, the modern day Varanasi. The poet strongly disapproved the technique to convert 'lies into cobalt truths' through endless repetition and improvisation.

He also presented 'Banaras' as the site and text to expose the fake spiritual gurus and corporate spiritual trainers. The poem presented Hinduism as a deeply engrained living faith without any ethnic markers or cultural barriers. It is different from ‘political Hindutva’. Banaras, besides being the seat of

Lord Shiva

was also the 'Kaaba of Hindustan'. Kumar borrowed the 'Kaaba of Hindustan' idea from celebrated Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.

Talking to this reporter, Ashwini said he was impressed by the continuation of Gaya’s age old literary tradition. “This was a rarity and Gayaites deserve salute for keeping the torch lighted in the era of darkness,” he said.

He also lauded fiction writer and

Renaissance

president Sanjay Sahay for giving a fillip to the otherwise decaying theatre culture and other forms of creativity. He also said that he is working on a book titled 'BIHARI -A portrait of a community' to be published by Aleph Book Company.