Renowned poet, lyricist, author and screenwriter Gulzar on Friday said that poetry was not just a matter of textbooks but it is connected with everyday life and things.
“Today’s generation feels that poetry is a matter of textbooks. They are not able to see it by connecting it with everyday life and things”, Gulzar told the audience in conversation with Rakhshanda Jalil on the second day of the Jaipur Literature Festival here.
Gulzar said, “So I have added these 365 contemporary poems (Nazam) for them only in my book : A Poem A Day. Through them, they will also be able to understand the pulse of the changing times.”
‘A Poem a Day’ is a collection of 365 Nazms compiled by Gulzar Sahib. He has collected contemporary poems of 365 poets from 1947 to 2017 and translated them into Hindustani.
The second day of JLF started with Suraj Ki Aankh Micholi and violin and mridangam duets, and the day was devoted to many important issues, in which democracy, agriculture, China-dispute as well as poets and public-welfare were discussed openly.
In a session on ‘Sustaining Democracy: Nurturing Democracy’ with Tripurdaman Singh, noted author-politician Shashi Tharoor spoke on the crisis facing democracy in India and the world. Talking about the role of mass movement in a democracy, Tharoor said, “Streets fill up only on issues where policies affect a large section of the public… Policies should be made by those who are in office. Let’s work on the needs of the people”.
In another session, ‘Daira and Dhanak’, two famous poets of their time, Jaan Nisar Akhtar and Kaifi Azmi, were mentioned. ‘Daira’ and ‘Dhanak’ are collections of poems by Jaan Nisar Akhtar and Kaifi Azmi respectively, edited by Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi. Through these two great poets who were born at the same time, some pleasant things of that period and nazms were shared with the audience. Akhtar saheb mentioned the progressive movement in 1930 and its impact on the writings of both the poets.