Indian poetry and poets have come a long way. Since the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful collection of poems, Gitanjali Indian literature has been making significant strides on global literary platforms. From bringing in Booker prizes and hosting a myriad of literature festivals in the homeland to being a part of some of the most celebrated poetry festivals across the globe and winning international awards, India often makes headlines across the world for its poetry. Carrying ahead this legacy of more than 5,000 years is Kolkata-based poet Sonnet Mondal who will be performing at the 61st Struga Poetry Evenings Festival in Macedonia.
Sonnet will be representing India in the 61st Struga Poetry Evenings which is scheduled to be held from August 24 to August 29 this year. Ahead of the festival, we caught up with Sonnet Mondal to talk more about the festival, Indian representation in the global poetry circle, the evolution of free verses, and more. Sonnet tells us that during the course of this festival his poems will be presented both in English and Macedonian. “I will be reading a few poems from my latest book An Afternoon in My Mind which was written during the lockdown. The poems are about my past, the locations where I belonged, and the life that has continuously moved me from one place to another, leaving a piece of me in each of these locations,” says the poet and muses that in his poems he doesn’t try to retrieve or reorganise the past but has narrated it in the form of verses with a desire to travel back in time.
Sonnet is the first poet from India to be invited to the festival for the second time after 2014.
First organised in 1961 in the Republic of North Macedonia, Struga Poetry Evenings Festival is perhaps one of the oldest poetry festivals in the world which brings together one of the most important poetic gatherings, hosting more than 5000 poets, publishers, book reviewers, and theoreticians. Over the course of 61 years, 13 eminent Indian poets have been invited to this festival including stalwarts like Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan Agyeya, K Satchidanandan, Kunwar Narain, and Sujata Bhatt among others. The festival also bestows the Golden Wreath Award, the highest award for one’s overall poetry work. Indian poet Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan popularly known as Agyeya is the only poet who was bestowed with the Golden Wreath Award in 1983.
Sonnet is also one of the organisers of Çhair Poetry Evenings, an international poetry festival in Kolkata that brings a host of national and international poets performing at various landmarks in Kolkata. “The 2022 edition will host poetry readings and discussions. We also plan to continue hosting our traditional Poetry on the Cruise and visual poetry exhibitions. We anticipate hearing poetry from both established and budding poets from different parts of the country in Kolkata this November,” says the 34-year-old poet.
Sonnet's inclination toward poetry started in his school days but it was only in 2006 when he wrote poetry that he says expressed himself. Interestingly, his name Sonnet also means a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, which he says isn't a pen name but given to him by his parents, who are also fond of poetry.
When asked how he sees the evolving poetry scene in India in the last decade, he says poetry has progressed for the better. “Poetry in India has come a long way, with more poetry events being held across the nation, more institutions devoted to poetry emerging, and more people becoming interested in using poetry as a means of self-expression,” says the poet and points out that the readership of poetry books needs to improve. “When it comes to poetry written in an Indian language, the scene has always been interesting but is only available to speakers of that language. Today, Indian translators have been working tirelessly to promote language poetry, and because of their efforts, poets from regional languages have been able to reach a wider audience,” he insists. Do you think the digital mediums are also providing a platform to many young poets and writers?
“The digital world is being used quite actively to promote good poetry but it has also blurred the line between good and bad poetry. Unless a person knows what good poetry is, he will never be able to appreciate good poetry. Insta poetry, stand-up poetry, and Twitter poetry are much different from what is called ‘poetry’ without suffixes or prefixes. It will never be as easy as scribbling random ideas down without artistic consideration,” opines the author of Karmic Chanting, Ink &Line, Diorama of Three Diaries, and 21 Lines Fusion Sonnets of 21st Century apart from An Afternoon in My Mind. Sonnet points out that the past century has also seen a trend of free verses. “Just as the rhythm of chaos has music, so does everyday informal dialogue. Sticking to natural rhythms of speech as in free verse has more capability to connect and communicate than symmetrical lines that adhere to a norm. Free verse can always do justice to this terse and figurative genre of literature, given one doesn’t confuse it with Insta or stand-up poetry,” expresses the poet as we conclude our conversation.
priyanka.chandani@newindianexpress.com
@MinksChandani