Poetry and Prose reading session curated by Raghvendra Madhu from Poerty Couture

How often does a prose and poetry reading goes housefull on a weekday? Well, one did. Poetry Couture had organized an event "Fresh Leaf Readings, An Evening of Prose and Poetry" at AntiSocial, Hauz Khas Village yesterday. It was a Wednesday and frankly I wasn't expecting a huge turnout. But I was in for a surprise. The room was full. There wasn't even a single empty chair by the time the audience had taken seat.

Featured readers for the night were: Anjali Kirpalani, Kulpreet Yadav, Vibha Malhotra, Tanya Chaudhary, and Raghavendra (who was also the moderator). The event was tight and crisp. After a brief panel discussion about books and prose vs. poetry, the readings started. I enjoyed them all.

Once the featured writers were done reading their works, the mic was open for all and we saw several young poets come up and share their poetry. It was amazing to see it all unfold so beautifully. Well done, Poetry Couture and Raghavendra! Keep up the good work.

Meghna, one of the poets who performed at the open mic shares this about the event -

"Poetry for me is like reaching out my soul and whenever I get a chance to enter into a space where I can feel poetry and prose flowing, that is like Home to me…I am a bit of a closet poet, barely participate in public forums, though after a long time I got a chance to attend an interesting event where we got a chance to meet new-age authors, poets and also could share a few of our own works. The event was well organized and interesting discussions flowed… Kulpreet Yadav, an upcoming author, already written 4 books, read out a few excerpts from his best seller - Catching the departed and I found the book very detailed and engaging. Another author from Mumbai, Anjali, came and spoke about her new book- Written in the stars, a nice , quick, light read, and pretty apt when you feel like reading something which is not quite intense.

Later, we also heard some very beautiful poems from Tanya Chaudhary and Vibha Malhotra. My favorite was Tanya's poem - Poetry is made of countless things.. loved the imagery and the subtleness that was expressed in words. Vibha's poem were quite unique and different and they carried a nice social, relatable message that would resonate with parents, and children by and large. Raghavendra Madhu, who is the founder of Poetry Couture, shared his works. I found his epigrams quite interesting. Later, 5 poets were chosen to share their works in open mic- I loved sharing my poems- Red Terrain and Home.. For poets like us, its a great platform where we can share and grow immensely. I quite the liked haiku, and the poem 'Master'.. it was an innovative piece of writing.

On the whole, I had a fabulous experience and I look forward to attend more such enriching events in the near future… Kudos to the organizers ! Cheers !"