It’s not just everyday that you get the chance to be in the company of music and poetry, coupled with like-minded people, sharing laughter and clicking their fingers on every beautiful poem uttered over the mike.
Lafz-e-Ikraar – A spoken word event on the theme of love, ishq, mohabbat.
Just so you know, this was the second event of its kind organized by Almost Art. After the success of Penchant (the first event), Almost Art collaborated with MYOLO to bring together an evening of shayars expressing their love through lines of immortality on 17 December.
Almost Art is an organisation that focuses on celebrating various forms of art. From photography and writing to artwork and spoken word, they provide a platform to all those artists who are trying to change the world with their brushes, words, pixels or strings of guitar.
MYOLO is an exclusive platform for relationships that blends the online and the offline to connect people in reality by using technology upfront and interest-based and fun activities and events offline.
After a light ice-breaking session organised by MYOLO, India’s first dating app, the evening of romance started. These love poets were chosen on the basis of their work. Days before the event, Almost Art had asked people to submit their entries to get a chance to present their work in front of a willing audience. A total of 20 poets were chosen for the evening.
It was not just the gathering for the known poets and shayars, but even those who have never let their work see light.. people who never had the opportunity to present their works in front of an audience willing to listen and praise their creative output.
The Artists and The Audience
Along with the known name of Shashank Shukla, they had Uppa Tsuyo Bantawa, Nilesh Mondal, Aqib Sabir, Riya Jain, Shorya Mittal, Rohit Jain, Aastha Singh, Rajneesh Gautam, Isha Yadav, Vikram Sharma, Aishwarya Dharan, Arpan Khosla, Aditya Arora, Gurveen Dang, and Pawan Khilwani.
For Uppa, a young poet from Dehradun who works with Teach For India, poetry is her therapy, her art of channelizing emotions and her willingness to make peace with the world. Writing both in English as well as Hindi, she amazed the audience with her powerful lyrics and oratory skills.
Rohit Jain, who works for an IT company had some interesting takes on the idea of expressing his love and everyone relished the charming poem by Nilesh from Terribly Tiny Tales.
If love was lost..love was found too.
If Love was Sweet.. it was bitter too.
If Love were love.. it was also the end of all good things.
Some expressed love over the desire to live with their beloved,
While there were others who rejoiced the quiet pain of the absence.
Poshak Dua, a young magician, amazed the audience with his card and coin tricks as well as made them laugh with his jokes. It was refreshing to see, new magicians gaining their place among the Indian youth.
Ronjoy Sircar, a known poet from Delhi was the feature performer of the evening.
They even had musicians like Jagrit, Swara, Sahil and Aayush, who made the crowd hum along, with their songs.
Shayari and Sharab go hand in hand and the free beer added a bit to the sha-e-rana mahaul that had the charm to make your forget everything else and just live in the moment. The informal setting helped to break down barriers, the walls that people carry around everyday.. people shared laughter and smiles and for a while it seemed like one of the best evening I had attended.
A nation where the mother tongue is Hindi, English poetry does feel a little short.. but it sure is coming up with events like these and then there always is Hindi and Urdu poetry to fall back on and relish.
ALMOST ART: Team Delhi
Almost Art, was founded by Afreen, Aashna, Eshwarya, Zinnia and Anwesha, who, themselves are writers and art enthusiasts. They started the project in September and have soon gained popularity as an art-based group, organizing events and celebrating various forms of art. While working together for a same platform, these five came together to form this organization to promote all kinds of art.
Events and young artists like these carry hopes of rejuvenating the art of our nation, which seems to have been engulfed in the hands of a few elite and dying in the hands of the so called ‘pseudo-intellectual’.
Almost Art will be organizing a similar event soon. Do take your time to attend.. You shall never regret it.