The fourth edition of the Pondicherry-Auroville Poetry Festival (PPF) gets under way across multiple venues in the city on Wednesday featuring poetry readings, book launches, discussions and music sessions.
Hosted by the Pondicherry Poets and The Brown Critique, this year’s theme of ‘equality/oneness’ is set against the backdrop of an increasingly polarised and conflict-ridden world. The key question we ask is whether oneness is possible in a world divided in innumerable ways — communal disharmony, gender inequality, national conflicts, and whether such a discourse can be kept going by honouring differences and diversity, said Gayatri Majumdar, festival director and Anju Makhija, PPF co-founder.
The two-day event will unfold at the Matri Niketan (previously Academy House restored by INTACH), Kurussukuppam, Palais de Mahe (CGH Earth) in Bussy Street (in association with the People for Pondicherry Heritage), and at Unity Pavilion in Auroville.
Apart from the main events that include a panel discussion on ‘Poetry: New Spaces and Future Trends’, there will be a farm Visit to Ousteri Lake and a workshop on Haiku led by Rochelle Potkar, Mumbai, at Aura store on Beach Road. At least 20 renowned poets, apart from musicians and speakers from across the country are participating in the festival.
Among the book launches on the schedule are the works of Ashwani Kumar (Rivers Going Home Anthology/Mumbai); Mani Rao (Love Me in a Hurry and Saundarya Lahari: Wave of Beauty/ Bengaluru); Sushrut Badhe (Sri Aurobindo’s Vedanta – Rhythm of Ananda/Puducherry); Gopal Lahiri Crossing the Shoreline/Kolkata); Anju Makhija (Mumbai Traps/Mumbai); Gayatri Majumdar (The Dream Pod/Puducherry); Nishi Pulugurtha (Raindrops on the Periwinkle/Kolkata); Smita Agarwal (Speak Woman/Allahbad), Kiran Bhat (Speaking in Tongues/Mumbai) and Paresh Tiwari (Now a Poem, Now a Forest/Mumbai).
