This spoken word performance by Shruti Haasan is what #poetrygoals is all about

It was a star-studded affair at the 25th anniversary celebrations of The Banyan
Shruti Haasan performing at the 25th anniversary celebrations of The Banyan
Shruti Haasan performing at the 25th anniversary celebrations of The Banyan

When the guest list of an event features Kollywood royalty like Mani Ratnam and wife Suhasini, actresses Revathi, Shobhana and singer-performer Shruti Haasan, one wouldn't expect the programme to be not related to the cinema industry. But that was the case on Saturday (July 21), when these stars got together under the roof of the grand banquet hall of the latest boutique resort to launch on ECR, Sheraton Grand Resort & Spa (to be launched on July 28). 

The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the Chennai-based organisation The Banyan, one of the oldest NGOs in the city that looks after homeless mentally-ill women and provides them with shelter and means of living. Currently servicing in three Southern states, The Banyan is regarded as a unique organisation that looks at the all-round mental well-being of their patients, and has benefited thousands of women over the past two decades. 

Director Mani Ratnam with one of the beneficiaries of The Banyan programmes at the 25th anniversary of Banyan. Express/Ashwin <g class=
Director Mani Ratnam with one of the beneficiaries of The Banyan programmes at the 25th anniversary of Banyan. Express/Ashwin
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The three-hour long celebratory programme featured the launch of two books -  The Psychological Impact of Partition in India and Like A Girl: Reel stories for tough kids. It was followed by talks by dignitaries like Vijay Narayan (Attorney General, TN), J Radhakrishnan (Health Secretary, TN), Nachiket Mor (Director of Bill & Melinda  Gates Foundation, India) and others. Mani Ratnam and ace photographer Venket Ram launched a photobook with stories of survivors, while Revathi and Ranvir Shah co-hosted the programme.

In the end, it was the turn of Shruti Haasan to steal the show. The actress, who was accompanied by her sister Akshara at the event, started with a piece of spoken word poetry, followed by a few originals by her band, and covers of songs by legends like Kurt Cobain and John Lennon.

 

Shruti Hassan's soulful performance at the celebrations! #BANYAN25

A post shared by The Banyan (@the.banyan) on

 

Shruti Hassan's soulful performance at the celebrations! #BANYAN25

A post shared by The Banyan (@the.banyan) on

Below is the poem: 

You’ve could’ve looked right through 

Right through the centre of me 

Right through into a dense greed 

Fill it up like the words to a nursery rhyme 

With anything you find 

Liquid skin and smoke 

Filling right through 

Right through the centre of me 

It’s sinking and staying afloat 

It’s searching in the dark room 

At the bottom of the ocean

For the keys 

Hoping that a word a touch 

A whisper or a hug

Would drown out the silence 

Of the hole that went right through me 

You could still look right through me 

Maybe not as much 

Maybe not in the same ways 

I’ve been told 

But we all have one thing in common stranger 

That varied needy black hole 

Always pleading for more 

Fill it in or let it be 

Succumb or succeed 

Watch and weep like you do with flowers 

Tip toe around like kinder garden games 

Hide in the corner like a wet kitten 

Bury the depths of it with secret sands 

Go the edge to test your Steel 

Only to realise the bottom was never real 

Listen to the answers  it pretends to give you 

About that day that man or mommy 

The things they never said that they should’ve 

Or the thoughts they should’ve never set free 

Hover above it on Saturday night in high heels 

Stumble down the sharp edges all on your own in last weeks anxieties 

Under the wheels of regret 

Smother it with solitude 

Ignore the echo you hear 

When you lose the pebbles of an idea 

Tumbling down that face of fear 

Do what you must 

Say what you will 

And remember in the end my friend 

I’d let you look right through me

And the words of a story 

May speak to you in the code of what some people call hope 

The words of a story meld into the sighs 

Of what you meant to say 

And you’ll hear the words again and again and again 

“Oh it’s alright , it’s alright it’s there 

It’s alright my child 

Cause that’s what we will always be 

 For That was the beginning 

And even when it never goes away

And you start right back where youve already been 

Just remember my child , it’s alright 

Because We can always choose to sink 

But we must always learn to swim

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