Mysore, Feb. 3 (KMC&KK)- The three-day 5th International Poetry Festival on the theme 'Poetry of Exile, Trauma and Survival' organised by Kritya, a Kerala-based organisation in association with the University of Mysore and Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), began at CIIL auditorium here this morning.
Playwright and litterateur Prof. Mahesh Elkunchwar, speaking after inaugurating the Festival, stressed on the need to understand and communicate with the poet for whom the only tool is the language with which he tries to bond with the humanity.
"The poet is in possession of an elixir only which can help us trudge the desert of social alienation. He seems to be in communion with a higher reality, in possession of an other-worldly truth and he stands there in his resplendent aloneness as an emissary from another world," said Prof. Mahesh.
The Professor added, "He speaks of the unknown and we are terrified of it. As long as this situation prevails, there is no real togetherness, no bonding. If it persists, there is only doom. It is not easy to surrender to him. It involves too many risks; the risk of obliterating ourselves and merging into something bigger than us."
Beginning his talk with a confession that he was not a poet and though he had tried to become one, had failed, Prof. Mahesh said that art was God's gift and could not be chosen by an individual.
Dr. Rajesh Sachdeva, CIIL Director, delivering the keynote address, said that music and lit...more
