Veteran poets meet with the newest generation of poets to discuss the art

Sallam Lanchenbi Chanu with Neeraja at the event

In this generation of Instagram poetry, where all sharing and discussing of one's writings happens online, a group of Indian poets from the country's northeast and western regions gathered at the Sahitya Akademi in Dadar on Friday to share their work and talk about what unites them all - poetry.

The seventh session of the 'North-East and Western Writers' Meet' held at Akademi's basement auditorium, brought together a diverse and interesting combination of people on stage, from eminent Marathi poet Neeraja to Sallam Lanchenbi Chanu, 14, who came all the way from Manipur, was the youngest ever participant on this platform, along with Geeta Bindrani (Sindhi poet), Vijay Chormare (Marathi poet), and Youraj Sunadass (Nepali poet).

Lacks the charm
mid-day had the chance to catch up with some of the participants and ask them: why not share and discuss your work online? "This is the new technology, so the younger generation is attracted towards it, but the older and middle generation, we are old-school," said Bindrani, 53, whose masterful poetry comes to her after drinking one glass of water (or tea, depending on the time of the day).

She added, "Yes, there is a lot of glory in the modern-day literature that prevails on the internet as well, except that it doesn't really have the older writing's charm. This (the Akademi) is a government organization and the is why our thinking isn't on the lines of social media."

Young 'un agrees
But it's not only the older generation who would rather share their work in person. Sallam, who was there to share her work on a public platform for the very first time, said, "Doing this in person is more convenient than over the internet, because in the latter, things can be misinterpreted and misrepresented very easily. One might not be able to gauge how much they like or dislike something over the internet, but in person, we can explain and communicate more conveniently."

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