punjab

Updated: Nov 13, 2017 14:56 IST

Born into the ‘Nehru Yug’, writing in the ‘Indira Yug’ and dwelling in the ‘Modi Yug’: this is how prominent Hindi poet Manglesh Dabral described his journey as a poet. He was at Chandigarh Literature Festival to talk about his new collection of poems, ‘Naye Yug Mein Shatru’, on the second day of the festival at Panjab University.

Another prominent Hindi poet and critic, Asad Zaidi, joined him for the discussion. The meaning of the word, ‘shatru’ (enemy), turned quite literal. Zaidi said the title of the book talked volumes of Dabral’s conscious and expresses the fear caused in the society by this ‘shatru’.

“The first and the last refuge for us is poetry and language. We have the job to save the imagination. I have never seen the situation so worse as it is now in the Modi Yug.”

Zaidi talked about how Dabral’s poetry gave space to the new and the past, its hope in resistance and the historical responsibility of contemporary poetry.

He added that the ‘Modi Yug’ was too bitter for writers.

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He further said, “Resistance was not a duty when we started writing, but with time it became one.” He added that Dabral returned his Sahitya Akademi award to fulfil that role.

Dabral said, “The first and the last refuge for us is poetry and language. We have the job to save the imagination. I have never seen the situation so worse as it is now in the Modi Yug.” “Anything can happen instantly. There’s fear in people’s minds. Terror has been democratised and citizens are not realising it,” he added.

He lamented that Hindi will become the language of just market, advertisement and merchandise soon, adding, “It’s not going to help the language if Obama says namaste.”

He further said the worst part was that the media had stopped reading literature and that has created a “poverty of the mind”. Dabral recited several of his poems, including ‘Torch, Gujarat Ke Mritak Ka Bayaan’. He concluded, “The new generation will have to dream for another ‘yug’ and then realise it.”