Youngsters in Kolkata enthral audience at Braille Poetry Festival with their visions of society, nature
Times of India | 24 November 2024
123 Kolkata: The audience at Indumati Sabhagarh listened with rapt attention as 18-year-old Habil Murmu recited his poem, ‘Samaj (Society)', which fetched him the first prize in the All Jharkhand and West Bengal Braille Poetry Competition. Murmu is a visually impaired student from Ranchi.
This was the first time when Murmu read out his poem to an audience, comprising outsiders, and not limited to his school friends or teachers. A student of St Michael School for the Blind, Murmu is the son of a farmer and ration dealer in Ranchi.
He was one of the 35 poets, who had gathered for the 12th Sparshanandan Braille Poetry Festival held in the city on Saturday. "You are more likely to find me at a musicians' gathering than at a poets'. I love writing about society and people. But it's the first time I wrote a poem on the subjugations of society towards people who are weaker or poor, and look where it got me," said Murmu.
Murmu said he felt welcomed by the society of poets whom he got introduced to during the festival. "Society doubts your abilities at every step. But standing on the stage, I felt important and a person who can be whatever he wished for," he said.
MaharashtraJharkhandMaharashtraAlliance ViewiParty ViewSeats: 288ResultsMajority: 145BJP+229MVA47OTH12Results: 288/288BJP+ WONJharkhandAlliance ViewiParty ViewSeats: 81ResultsMajority: 41INDIA56NDA24OTH1Results: 81/81INDIA WONSource: PValueLike Murmu, many others from Ranchi, Alipurduar, Uttarpara and Behala gathered to recite their poems and were felicitated. Publisher and editor of Sparshanandan Drishthiheender Braille Patrika (SDBP) Satyajith Mandal said, "It's interesting how they write about colours without ever seeing them. I asked one of the students, Aparna, how she could describe colourful butterflies in her poetry, and she told me she imagined them from the descriptions cited by her parents, siblings and friends."
Since 1992, the magazine has been publishing Braille-printed poetry. Over the years, Mandal said, he had seen many visually-impaired poets rising with their powerful poetry. Sixteen-year-old Rohan Rabdias said after presenting his maiden poem, ‘Desh (Country)', that it was a coincidental win. "We were asked to write a poem by our principal, and I wrote about the youths of our country and ranked second."
"We want poets with visual impairment to take the centre stage and be celebrated for their work," Mandal said.