“Social distancing” is the new togetherness, and “divided we stand and united we fall”.
41 poets from their domicile states in the country contributed for the first time to weave a tapestry on India’s solidarity through poetry.
India, Our Passion is a poem of good hope and cheer in these difficult times.
The concept of bringing together poets from all walks of life irrespective of age was conceptualized by Yazda Ashrafi, Principal of Gurugram Public School, Jharkhand. Poet harvesting and gathering the golden sieves was operated by yours truly, Grace Sitharaman, the International Coordinator of East West Public School, Bangalore.
Both of us are also contributors to this ballad, along with an array of poets, glorifying India.
The poet collection comprises a spectrum of passionate poetry lovers. There are connoisseurs, first time out of the closet and hardcore pen holders with a strong voice and belief. Surprisingly, there are also students as young as 12, penning with excitement as though they were having a fun social science class.
A bunch of poets in this soulful ballad are away from home. To them, it’s recalling and reliving the passion of their beloved patch called home, which COVID-19 has distastefully kept them away from.
So, the character of the poem to describe it would be the following: India is a multilingual, multicultural extravaganza; its diverse culture weaves into one another creating a tapestry beyond a single life to behold.
Yazda and I connected to poets, rather, people who are passionate about their state and very passionate about speaking and writing about it. They wouldn’t necessarily have been poets.
Time was running and we were running faster.
The joy in the process of creating the conglomerate has been quite a challenge, but at the end a beautiful bouquet has been created by 41 poets who have penned their passion for their state to make India a passionate canvas of solidarity in diverse components, singing a ballade of soulful mysteries and beholding treasures of India’s oneness.
We intend to give it a musical glow so that we can sing this soul uplifting ballad to the people of our country and invite them to add their own along with us.