monalisa patsani
post news network
Bhubaneswar, July 13: “Har mayoos chehre pe khushi lautane aaya hoon/ Chooth gayi thi kisi pal mein, mein wo hasee lautane aaya hoon,” goes a couplet by Sitam Sagar Bedbak.
The Hindi ‘shayar’ from Titilagarh is said to be making waves with couplets such as these among lovers of this genre of poetry. The 24-year-old, who has graduated from DAV College, Titilagarh, says he developed a love for the form of poetry, when he was in Class X.
“A friend of mine used to collect ‘shayari’ of renowned poets. I, too, developed an interest for these and started collecting them. I started writing shayari in college and used to participate in soirees. Friends and others encouraged me to get down seriously to write these couplets.”
Sitam now plans write ‘shaers’ in Oriya, too, although the form of poetry is traditionally written in Urdu and Hindi. “So far I have written more than 120 couplets, and the audience has received them well,” he said.
Besides presenting couplets at different programmes in Orissa and other states, Sitam is contributing his works to journals published in other states. “It is sad that we do not have any Hindi journal in our state, owing to which it is difficult to publish works here. Recently I sent a couplet titled ‘Shadat-e-Hindustan’ to a journal ‘Sahitya Gandha’ published from Lucknow.”
Sitam, who is also preparing for a job in banking, plans to publish his first collection soon.
“Recently I decided to publish my work. I have discussed with publishers but am yet to finalise anything. Although I have adequate content for the book, I want to add some more before I go for it,” he said.
The poet counts Munawwar Rana, Rahat Indori, Kumar Vishwas, Sagar and Haldhar Nag among his idols and is no stranger to criticism. “I want to carve a niche for myself in the world of poetry. I intend to popularise Hindi among youths through my work,” he said. Sitam has been faced with some stiff opposition in this course. During one poetry session, he says, a member of the audience walked up to him and chided him for creating works in Hindi instead of Oriya.
“I do love Oriya but shayari is more popular in Hindi. There is no harm in writing in another language,” he said.
Besides writing, Sitam also engages in social activities and is member of several organisations.