One-day Poetry Festival organized at Panjab University

Koral ‘Purnoor’, Demokretic Front, Chandigarh May 13, 2022 :

Chandigarh, 13 May: A one-day long poetry festival was jointly organized by the Department of English and Cultural Studies and Dean, International Students, at Panjab University on Friday to commemorate the World Language Day that fell on 23 April.

The festival kicked off with two eminent poets, Sudeep Sen and Anamika, reciting their poems in English and Hindi, respectively. The event was tri-lingual. While Anamika translated Sudeep’s poems into Hindi, Sudeep translated Anamika’s into English. Parminder Singh, a research scholar of the department, also read Sudeep Sen’s poems into Punjabi translation. The audience especially enjoyed the synchronized renderings of the various poems in three languages. Anamika read poems largely on women-related issues and their sisterhood. Her poems were also translated by the students of the department into Punjabi and were read out before a receptive audience.

The Chairperson of the Department of English and Cultural Studies, Professor Akshaya Kumar, held an engaging and thoughtful conversation with the two poets regarding their poetic endeavors and their experience with translation in contrast. Both the poets traced their poetic ancestry to multiple Indian traditions.

Neha Bansal (IAS), a former student of the department, and Ranjit Saranwali, both poets awarded and published by Sahitya Akademi Delhi, presented their poems in English and Punjabi, respectively, in the post-lunch session. Thereafter, the students of the various departments of the university took the stage to present their original poems. Their poems written across languages had a ready resonance among the young audience. The day ended with Sudeep Sen’s kind words of encouragement to budding poets not to lose heart and keep writing. Dean, International Students, Deepti Gupta’s support for the event was appreciated by the audience.