DLF Gurugram Poetry Festival 2022 || A deep and engaging literary event organized by Hawakal Publishers and Red River

Every time I go to a literary event, not only do I meet interesting people, I also learn so many new things. People who have spent hours with a field as enriching as literature and poetry, or as Raghavendra Madhu out it "lived a life of poetry", naturally have some very interesting opinions on things. You may not agree with all of their opinions, but they do give you new perspectives, and things to think about. 

It was because of this, and several other reasons, that we found ourselves at Gurgaon yesterday to attend the first day of the DLF Gurugram Poetry Festival 2022. The event was organized by Hawakal and Red River and presented by Raghavendra Madhu, at DLF Club 5. Despite the long weekend, the event was well-attended by poets and poetry enthusiasts. 

The festival was a two-day event. Day 1 of the festival started at 3pm with an inaugural discussion in the presence of Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar and Dr Swati Pal. The discussion veered around the importance of events such as a poetry festival. Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar reflected on the importance of a critical study of the contemporary poetry and encouraged the academicians to get involved. 

Prof. Swati Pal made a point about how poetry originates. She reflected upon how pain and grief bring stir that emotional storm that may lead to poetry. Her point is all the more relevant now that I know that a book titled "living on: poems on grief and loss", curated by her, will soon be coming out. 

The inaugural discussion was followed by the launch of "The Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2022", an anthology edited by Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar and Dr Vinita Agrawal. Dr Agrawal could not make it to the event, but Dr Kumar launched it along with three poets who have their works featured in the book - Ankush Banerjee, Amlan Jyoti Goswami, and Aranya. 

The presentation of the Ethos Literary Awards 2022 followed next. This is an annual award by Ethos Literary Journal. This year the award went out to Sanjukta Dasgupta, K. Satchidanandan, Malashri Lal, and Sanjeev Sethi for their substantial literary contributions. While three of the recipients could not make it, Dr Malashri Lal was there and it was wonderful to see her in person, having heard so much about her. 

The presentation of the award was followed by the formal launch of "The Well-Earned", an anthology to commemorate the 75th year of India's independence, in which I too am privileged to have a few of my Haiku published. Poets Malashri Lal, Kiriti Sengupta, and Bitan Chakraborty unveiled the book and this was followed by readings by some of the contributors Sukrita Paul Kumar, Swati Pal, Malashri Lal, Seema Jain, Nabanita Sengupta, Sahana Ahmed, Alka Balain, Ankush Banerjee, and Vibha Malhotra (me).

The launch of "The Well-Earned" was followed by a session known as Multiverse 1, moderated by Rajorshi Patranabis, that brought together poets from various backgrounds, such as Manish Sinha (whose poem "Qutb Minar ki Peshi" took the room by storm), Rimi Dey, Prasenjit Dasgupta, Shamayita Sen, and also the young poets Ankit Raj Ojha, Amrita Sharma, and Mukulika Batabyal. 

We were unfortunately not able to attend the day 2, but it promised to be another engaging day. I do hope that the festival comes back next year. It will be great to meet up such wonderful people again. And to be honest, there can never be enough discussions about literature, art, and poetry.  

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