Mumbai: ‘When you become the poem itself’

Varavara Raorsquos first anthology of poems translated into English called lsquoVaravara Rao A Life in Poetryrsquo was released at a function held at Press Club Azad Maidan late Saturday evening The book is edited by N Venugopal and Meena Kandasamy The book is a collection of poems translated by nine translators from 16 books published between 1968 and 2014Letrsquos celebrateRaorsquos nephew N Venugopal said at the outset ldquothis is not a conventional book launch This is a celebration of Rao and his poetryrdquo Varavara Rao was in the audience with his wife HemlathaRao has been implicated in the BhimaKoregaon case and incarcerated in Pune and Mumbai prisons for over three years since 2018 The case refers to the violence during an annual celebratory gathering also called Elgar Parishad on January 1 2018 at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon Rao is currently living in Mumbai for the last two years on conditional bailAnchored by Venugopal the written word was the hero of this meet Playwright Ramu Ramanathan said ldquoI am generally profoundly pessimistic but literature is our reason for hoperdquo Ramanathan compared the recitation of Raorsquos poems to a waterfall ldquothere is a lot of noise like when a waterfall is crashing down the underlying message is that you have to make noise to be heard in this world Yet just as the silence that descends when the water stops flowing there are moments of utter calm toordquo he statedPoem powerJerry Pinto said ldquowhat does poetry do It stands witness to moments when we have been ourselves or more than ourselvesrdquo Of fiery revolution Pinto said ldquothere has not been a revolution that has not started with words or thoughtsrdquo Pinto explained that the young often say ldquowe do not want only words we want to see action I say words in their own way are much more lsquoactiversquo One job of a poem is to go sparking in someonersquos ear and say to him you could be doing this When you enter the poem it is an act of empathy It becomes so large that it becomes a threat to all established structures like patriarchy fascism casteismhelliprdquoThe challengeHuman rights lawyer Mihir Desai who confessed he seemed to be ldquothe odd man out in this collection of creative peoplerdquo said ldquopoetry is one of the most subversive ways of dealing with the present establishment It is a very important vehicle and VV referring to VV Rao is one of the foremost exponents of this vehiclerdquoThough a number of speakers including Desai referred to the current BJP government calling these ldquodark timesrdquo others referring to the ldquothreat to freedom of expressionrdquo Desai did say that Rao has been ldquothe target of governments throughout his liferdquoThe struggleProfessor and Raorsquos family friend Tejaswini Niranjana said that the name of the book is ldquoa life in poetry but it should have been called a life in struggle Whenever there was an epochal political event or turn me and my students would ask ourselves what would VV Rao think of thisrdquo said the Niranjana referring to the arc of influence Rao had on her life Poems were read out in Hindi Marathi Telugu Punjabi and in EnglishIndira Jaisingrsquos speech focused on upping healthcare for the incarcerated The human rights lawyer said ldquoSocial and economic rights of prisoners includes the right to health I got a WhatsApp on my phone years ago stating is there no lawyer in this country who can get VV out before he dies in jailrdquoWhile revolution and Rao were the context it was language its potency and the ability it has to transform you in fundamental ways which shone as bright as the first stars in the sky as the late evening sky gave in to darkness at the end of two hours