Toilet Ek Prem Katha writers pen a poem about India, say Javed Akhtar's call to writers inspired them to share their thoughts

The poem deals with issues that India is facing today like censorship and lack of freedom of speech
Garima and Siddharth
Garima and Siddharth

Writers Siddharth Singh and Garima who are known for the screenplays of films like Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ramleela, Batti Gul Metre Chalu, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, and have written films like Raabta and Toilet Ek Prem Katha, recently released a poem titled Thande Lekhak on their blog. The poem deals with issues that our country is dealing with.

The poem is inspired by Javed Akhtar's call for free writing. On 16th March, at the 53rd edition of the Shankar-Shad Mushaira that took place at Modern School in Delhi, Javed Akhtar recited a new, unpublished poem for the first time in public that urged writers to speak up and express themselves in today’s dark times.

In support of that, a few days back legendary Lyricist Gulzar Saab also wrote a short poem with three verses. And now famous writers and Lyricist Siddharth-Garima have written a heartfelt poem highlighting the problems that plague our nation in today’s times.

Commenting on the same, Siddharth and Garima say, “The trigger was the poem written by Javed Saab. We feel a writer thrives on the socio-economic scenario of the society. In the last couple of years, we have seen killings of the torch-bearer writers who advocated 'freedom of speech' like Pansare and Gauri Lankesh. The apathy of the common man is omnipresent. People in our country die unceremoniously when a bridge collapses. This after we pay hefty taxes for the development of infrastructure. We feel we celebrate too much of the non-existent valour of the government. There's actually no freedom of speech left in the country. We write and create mass entertainers that have a social message at the heart. But the censor board strikes off any critical mention of the government policies. Be it literature or any mass media communication, it's the writer who shapes the face of a liberated society. It's this responsibility that we see missing in today's creators and that's the driving force(angst) of this outburst.”

Read Siddharth and Garima's poem here.

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