Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
The 5th World Poetry Conference kicked off yesterday with the theme: Poetry: the last hope of Mankind. The event was organized by Aazaad Foundation [Regd] and International Academy of Ethics. According to Dr. Jernail S. Anand, Chairman of the WPC the Inaugural Function followed by book launch and International Poets Conclave proved to be a grand success.
Dr. Parneet Jaggi, the talent host, introduced the theme of the WPC, followed by an Inaugural and Welcome address by Dr. Anand. He thanked the Serbian Writers Association for the International Award in Creativity: The Charter of Morava and also, for engraving his name on the Poet’s Rock.
The event kicked off with a speech by Dr. Basudeb Chakraborti, the Chairman of the Org. Committee, followed by address and poetry rendering by the Chief Guest, Dr. Rashid Pelpuo, a Member Parliament and Poet from Ghana. Dr. Kalpana Purohit, the sagacious and talent academician from Jai Narain University, Jaipur, delivered the Keynote Address which re-lived great poetry and pointed out how poetry is the mainstay of human emotions. Dr. Maja Herman Sekulic, the Guest of Honour, apart from congratulating Dr. Anand on his Serian Award, rendered a poem ‘Love is All We Need’. There was an interval in which the book launch session was held. Five books of Dr. Anand and a work of Poetry by Dr. Parneet Jaggi had their world premier.
[The Best Poetry of Dr. Jernail Anand: An Offering in Translation, The Imperfect Artist, The Silt of Sin, Prometheous Rebound and The Island of Limited Joy. Dr. Parneet Jaggi’s work of poetry ‘The Sun in the Palm’]
The World Premier was followed by the International Poetry Conclave in which four Guests of Honour, Sh. Bhagirath Choudhary, Dr. Lalit Mohan Sharma, Sh. Arindam Roy and Dr. Molly Joseph participated with their superb poetry. The Conclave had stalwarts of poetry from different countries: Rawle Iam James [Canada], Zlatan Demirovic [US], Ed Cordevilla [Phillipines], Dr. Zamia Poran Zion [Israel], Daniel Rivach [Oxford] Sheshana Vega [Israel] Eva Petropolou Lainou [Greece] Millica Lilic [Serbia] and Sabyasachi Nazrul [Bangladesh].
Dr Anand announced that on 19th Nov, we have 33 poets to participate in the three poetry sessions chaired by Dr. Mirzana Pasic Koderic, Bosnia Hersegovina, Sh. Ashok K. Bhargava and Dr. Rama Krishna Perugu. Tomorrow’s session will be dedicated to great poet Dr.Pedapudi Rama Rao. In the 3rd phase, on 26th Nov. we have listed 40 poets.
The Chairpersons of the three sessions are: Sh. Vinod Khanna, Sh. Mukul Kumar IRTS and Ibrahim Honjo [Canada]. Dr. Anand also complimented the hosts of these sessions. On 19th, the 1st session will be hosted by Dr. Sarita Sharma and Dr Shobha Sharma, the 2nd session by Meenakshi Goswami and the 3rd session by Dr. Sandhya Rao K. On 26th, the 1st session will be hosted by gifted poet Harinder Cheema, 2nd session by Dr. Sushmindarjeet Kaur and 3rd session by Dr. Shalini Yadav. Our close associates Dr. Sheela Banu and Dr.Tamali Neogi have offered to help in the conduct of these sessions.
During the Conference, Dr. Pedapudi Rama Rao received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature. Other poets who were felicitated with Award certificates were: Eva Petropolou Lainou [Greece] for her extraordinary work in dissemination of literature and building cultural and emotional bridges to bring the nations together, Rawle Iam James [Canada] who has made great efforts towards shaping the ideas of the Academy of Ethics, Agron Shele, for heading the world movement of Poetry with his portal Galaktika Poetika, and Sh. Brij Bhushan Goyal, General Secretary of Alumni Association, SCD Govt College, for establishing an Alumni Library in the College, and setting an example for others to follow.
Poetry has a direct connect with the social milieu. And it is a political document. It was no surprise there was hardly any poet which did not touch the war consciousness of our times. The Israeli poets brought out the deadly impact of war in graphic details. It was felt that when we are in pain, we cry. And poetry is that cry which lifts our voice to gods.
The first session of the WPC was intelligently curated by Professor Parneet Jaggi. Prof. Randhir Gautam was the host. Dr. Manminder Singh Anand and Dr.Mukesh Grover helped in the background.
The event succeeded in bringing people from different cultures and climates together on a common platform, and assert its faith in the theme of the WPC: That Poetry is the Last Hope of Mankind.
Dr. Manminder Singh Anand
Vice-President,
Aazaad Foundation.
