IIC DIAMOND JUBILEE POETRY READINGS – CULTURE AND CREATIVITY – LEGACY AND CHANGE
Conceptualised by Gitanjali Surendran

A Lamp in the Sun: An evening of raga-poetry through two millennia in six languages

S. Anand, a student of words and music will explore how a Tamil Sangam-era poem, a vachana in Kannada, an abhang in Marathi, a nirguni shabad, a sutta in Pali, and a ghazal in Urdu find comfort in ragas. In this land, ye des, indha nadu, where hierarchy, inequality and cruelty thrive, two areas of unparalleled excellence have been open to all: poetry and music. Poetry, sometimes secular, sometimes clothed in the colours of belief, is mostly remembered and passed on as song. It is habitually and helplessly beautiful. The words, sung to the accompaniment of a tanpura, flicker with meanings and throb with awareness
 
Anand is the publisher of Navayana, and a student of raga music with the dhrupad exponent Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar.