Sarvesh Asthana and Parveen Shukla
CHICAGO: The consensus among 400 plus members and guests attending the Kavi Sammelan (gathering of poets) hosted by the Uttar Pradesh Association of Greater Chicago(UPAC) was that it was an affair to remember and worth driving hundreds of miles to be part of it.
It was not a usual Bollywood type or commercialized show of dances and songs but a different fare that had no orchestra and background music but still had such a great appeal to hearts and minds of the audience that many pitched for its continuance even after three and a half hours of rendering from three poets from India – Dr Parveen Shukla, Sarvesh Asthana and Dr Vishnu Saxena.
This underlined the fact that love and lure for meaningful and true poetry and shayari is still alive in a latent form and needs a touch from an artist to blossom. As put by Dr Saxena “It is our (poets and shayars in general) majboori that there is plethora of commercialized and cheap type of creations. If the public at large yearn and ask for true and meaningful poetry, the poets and writers would have no choice but to come out with the fare that has class.”
Of late, it has become an annual fare for the association to host Kavi Sammelan and as put by the Chairman Prof Ghanshyam Pandey, the response has been progressively encouraging and this has enthused the organizers to invite well known and recognized poets from India.
He welcomed the guests and this was followed by a second welcome and brief dwelling on the activities of the association by its current president Sujata Sharma. It fell on the broad shoulders of Trustee Dr Subhash Pandey to introduce each poet at length and he did a remarkable job.
The start was from Dr Parveen Shukla and he endeared himself with some humorous notes and equally humorous way in introducing again Sarvesh Asthana. And the way Ashatna conducted himself in his recitation of poems shayari and comic anecdotes in the first and the second session after the intermission; he became a favorite of the audience.
But more was to follow in the turn of Dr Saxena. His was a more serious type of fare. And yet he got immensely popular response because of his sonorous voice and equally beautiful presentation of poems that appealed to the mind and heart of the audience who responded with spontaneous claps and participation.
Parveen Shukla did not disappoint and captivated all those present with his presentation of jokes, Chhands-Muktaks and humorous anecdotes. The trio of poets captivated the audience to such an extent that one and all gave them a rousing applause and pitched for their return. Dr Subhash Padney and Vice President Ravi Arora proposed a vote of thanks. The three poets were formally recognized with mementos at the end.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
