BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar Poetry Club and Bilbliophiles of Bhubaneswar organised a reading and discussion session titled ‘Kahwa Pe Charcha’ here recently.
The session was aimed at understanding the political turmoil in Kashmir. Readers and participants read and discussed some of the literary works, articles and other such works on the issue.
They also discussed about the report of a four-member team from Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) who visited Kashmir Valley from September 23-28, 2019. They interacted with people, especially women and children, to listen to their voices and understand the present conditions since the abrogation of Article 370 by the Indian government.
Participants read ‘Dear Shahid’ by Agha Sahid Ali, which is a poem from the poet’s collection of poems ‘The Country Without a Post Office’, published in 1997.
Sanchita Dwivedi, co-founder of Bibliophiles of Bhubaneswar, said “The conflict and conflicting opinions, pertaining to Kashmir, continue to perpetuate each other. In the midst of this ethnic and political predicament, we are here to explore the art of fiction, wherein the writers have attempted to give an outlet to the suppressed aspirations and collective memories of violence and loss of home.”
