Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies organized 8th Annual India Poetry Reading on May 8, 2004. This was the concluding event of the series of outreach lectures at the Harvard Science Center. The theme of this year’s poetry reading was “Love”.

Practicing and upcoming poets as well as connoisseurs of poetry recited poems about love and its many themes in a wide range of Indian languages - Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Kannada, Bengali, Oriya and Kumauni –and of course, English.

After welcoming remarks by Bijoy Misra, on behalf of the Outreach Committee, Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Nandlal Nayak rendered a vibrant and moving poetic invocation with his classic song “Sangi Re” in Jharkhandi.

The actual poetic recitations started with Albert Sherring as he talked about the theme of love in Indian poetry, and recited his own work titled “Gazal urf Mohabbat” in Hindi. This provided a fitting start to the session.

Erna Hooton recited a melodic poetic song “A song of India” originally composed by Nocolay Rimsky-Korsakow. Sajjad Kamal then recited his own short work titled “A Love Poem,” in English followed by Ajit Chaddha who recited his composition in English “Mother Nature” and a Punjabi poem “Mera Hamsaya”.

Reshma Singh with Swapna Sundaram presented an English poem “Harmony in love” followed by another English composition by Edith Parekh titled simply “Love”. Uma Nalaippan recited her composition in Tamil ”Anbu Enga”. Her daughter, Deepa Nelaippan recited the translation in English “Where is love”.

Naseem Hines accompanied with Shafiq Virani recited a beautiful self composed Urdu Gazal. Niranjan Durani read his love poem in English “Love.” Satyapriya Sarkar recited a Bengali poem entitled “Banalata Sen” composed by the famous Bengali poet Jibananda Das.

Jamunabai Prakash read her own poem entitled “An Ode to Raaga Bhairava” dedicated to her guru, inspired in a music concert. R. Balachandra read his Kannada poem “Premada Sandesa” (Message of Love.) Yogeswar Dayal read a Hindi poem “ Ek Kahani” composed by Ashok Chakradhar. It was a haunting story of a misunderstood woman. Rosie Kamal read an English poem translated from Bengali, titled “A Birth Talk”.

Subhash Saigal recited his own composition in Hindi titled “Sneh” (friendship) followed by a sweet love geet in Hindi by a young poet from India, Abhinav Shukla. Dhara Dhaulakhandi read a Kumauni poem titled “Bajyu makani tumari yad aich” composed by his sister Kamala Dhaulakhandi and one of his own composition in Hindi titled “Ishwvar ka pyar”. Bijoy Misra recited a beautiful Oriya poem “Kete dure” written by his father, late Sri Manmohan Misra. There was enthusiastic applause for the recitations and their creators showing the great interest in poetry.

There was a fitting conclusion to the poetry readings by an evocative love poem in Hindi rendered in a beautiful voice by Nanadlal Nayak. Bijoy Misra gave the vote of thanks.

India Poetry Reading at Harvard University is held in the afternoon of second Saturday in May. Original poems and poems from classics are invited for recitation. Please contact Dr Bijoy Misra at bmisra@fas.harvard.edu for further information and participation in the Next year’s event.

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