Rhyme finds reason in one language

The meet, initially organised as `Asian Women Poets’ Conference’ had become `Women Poets’ Meet’ as the only participant from outside the country, Kishwar Naheed (Pakistan) did not turn up. But that did not affect the gathering and as the women poets recited their verse, there was nothing lacking in the ambience. Sahitya Akademi secretary, K Sachidanandan, who welcomed the poets, broke the order of presentation and asked Tarannum Riyaz to recite her poem first, saying Urdu always got a back seat. In her ghazal, Tarannum summed up the expression of a mother when she found that her son had brought home a gun.

Noted Malayalam poetess Savithri Rajeevan recited herpoem `Gandhi’, which said Gandhi was not a toothless smiling mouth. She also referred to the essence of oneself in another poem, `Porul’ (crux of the matter). Pravasini Mahakud Tiwari (Oriya), described Mother Mary’s sculpture on a December night in Delhi in one of her poems. In another one, she spoke about Pushkin’s statue at the Rabindra Bhavan, headquarters of the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi.

Delhi-based Rukmini Bhaya Nair’s poem (English) `Making Ends Meet’ began with the line “This poem is for women..” Her poem was about women and water….set in a situation when the municipal tap stopped trickling. “A poem is water in a woman’s hand,” she concluded.

Usha Upadhyaya (Gujarat), while presenting her poems said she was in favour of arts and not ideologies. Mallika Sengupta (Bengali), Gagan Gill (Hindi) and M R Kamala (Kannada) also recited their poems.

“The meet has proved that Indian women poets’ poetry is not a monolith. There are many voices on Indian culture itself, ” said Akademi secretarySachidanandan. The meet was part of the programmes organised at the World Book Fair, linking with its theme `Asia’ this year.