WFK holds monthly meeting
What Boris Pasternak said about Literature, could not have been truer than what the evenings of Writers’ Forum bring to the fore. He said: Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary. At the monthly meeting of the Writers’ Forum, Kuwait (WFK) held at the residence of its President Umesh Sharma on the March 31, some very insightful and beautiful words in poetry and prose, were presented by its members.
The beauty not only lay in the content which had depth and provoked the listeners to think, but it also lay in the linguistic variety thereof. Original Short Story, Essays, Articles and Poetry were narrated and recited in English, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Sanskrit, and Gujrati. The Forum is unique in the sense that it unequivocally cherishes each and every Indian language and encourages the amateurs and the stalwarts to share space and thoughts on the same platform.
While the seniors such as Dr Arvind Raina, Umesh Sharma and Maimuna Ali Chougle have their own Halo Effect, there also are present in WFK- other fine and young creative litterateurs. While the evening was presided over by Aamir Diwan who writes poetry in Hindi, the Chief Guest on the occasion was Dr Arvind Raina who is one of the founders of WFK and writes poems in Hindi, Dogri, and English.
The meeting was steered by Rajesh Verlekar. In the first session, Maimuna Ali Chougle presented a critique on a great scholar, poet, and professor at Aligarh Muslim University-Ale Ahmad Suroor. The article was very well received, and so was the short story that followed in Oriya, penned and narrated by Biswa Ranjan. The story was translated in English by another Oriya poet- Tushar Misra. Dr. Navniit Gandhi presented a satirical essay in Hindi on the spiritual bonding that the mobile phones have brought about amongst humans.
The second session comprised the recitation of poetry by Preeti Rajgolikar (Sanskrit), Ravin Singh (Hindi), Sayeed Nazar Kadapavi (Urdu), Kamaal Ansari (Urdu), Shakeel Jamshedpuri (Urdu), Chhaya Thakkar (Gujurati), Umesh Sharma (Hindi), Rajesh Verlekar (English), Tushar Misra (Oriya), Dr Navniit Gandhi (Hindi) and Chhaya Athavale (Hindi). Another former member-Parminder Kaur’s poem in English was recited by her father- Mohan Singh. Others who were present included Sunil Sonsi, Rajeev Athavale, Ameer Uddin Ameer and Milind Rajgolikar.
The Chief Guest Dr Arvind Raina weaved his sentiments beautifully into words and expressed his happiness at the WFK’s success in bringing and keeping together the languages and poets of all seasons. He said that all the presentations evoked some very strong and deeply moving emotions. He then recited a beautiful poetry in Hindi. Aamir Diwan who was presiding over the evening, also expressed his elation and contentment, while listening to all the members. He too recited a gripping poem in Hindi. The host -Umesh Sharma was thanked for the gracious hospitality.