Hello there, Poetry Lovers, Welcome to this This Week in Poetry with Professor Nedumaran. We are back with episode nine and in this installment, we're about to embark on a poetic journey with one of the most compelling voices of our time, Imtiaz Dharker. Born in Pakistan, and raised in Scotland, Imtiaz Dharker's life unfolds as a mosaic of diverse cultures and experiences. She divides her time between the bustling streets of London and the vibrant city of Mumbai, India. This intersection of mixed heritage and an itinerant lifestyle lies at the very heart of her poetry. Imtiaz Dharker's verses ..read more

This week in Poetry - Episode Eight. In the coming weeks, we shall explore the amazing variety of poems in English written by Indian poets from the Pithamahan of Modernism, Nissim Ezekiel to the very young like Sivakami Velliyangiri, with their "thoughts weaned in silence, but spoken as poems". This is a whole new generation of poets exploring creativity with utter disregard for labels and canons, reading aloud, or performing their poems and expressing themselves on a dazzling variety of themes; provocative, transparent, and at times damning.  In this episode, we shall read some of the po ..read more

Welcome back to this week in poetry - episode seven. A poem is communicated before it is understood. Hence, a poem shall be read aloud heard, especially its music, its orchestrated sounds. The listeners shall feel those sounds before attempting analysis, particularly content analysis. Poems were read aloud in public, in durbars, in the presence of kings and people. And therefore this week in poetry is an effort at reviving the tradition of Kavi Samelans and Kavi Arangams where poets presented their work to the aficianados and lovers of poetry. Right. Without much ado, let's move on to the poem ..read more

Welcome back to This Week in Poetry. Oh, I am absolutely thrilled to be back with my listeners after a break. We shall begin our new season, visiting some of the great minds who made a huge difference to the ways creativity and poetic imagination would take shape in the 20th century. In this episode, we shall listen to couple of poems from W. B. Yeats, the Anglo, Irish poet, and two poems from the Tamil revolutionary poet of the 20th century, Bharathi Dasan. Adam's Curse by W.B. Yeats. Professor Harold Bloom calls this poem, a wisdom meditation. Quite rightly so. Meditation on hard work, bea ..read more

Hello there! Welcome to Episode 4. Beginning this episode I shall be presenting some of the best poems in world poetry i enjoyed reading & teaching. Let's listen to the words! Let life touch you! We spend a lot of time indoors in these strange times, hardly communicating with the near and dear, separated by distance and dread of disease! Time for some sunshine! Words from these great men and women bring so much joy, restore balance, and the power to face life head on! Listening becomes such a special joy, strengthening ties, reinforcing faith in life, sustaining our hope for better times ..read more

In this episode, we'll explore the poems of A.K. Ramanujan. AKR as he was popularly known was born in 1929 in Mysore. He moved to the us in 1962 and became a very distinguished Professor of linguistics and Dravidian studies at the University of Chicago. He's well known for his poems of love and war, an anthology of classical poems in Tamil translated into the English language. His poems in English are the reflections of an expatriate Indian poet, swinging between his perceptions of the vitality, energy, freedom of the west and his memories of his roots in his classical past in South India. In ..read more

Hello there! Welcome to This week in Poetry with Prof. Nedumaran. In this episode we will be exploring the poems of Nissim Ezekiel. “Best poets wait for words”- Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher. Nissim Ezekiel waited for his words throughout his academic, poetic,public life. Through his poetry he asserted his identity as Indian, though born of Jewish parents. He was a promoter of poetry. Bruce King, the author of Modern Indian Poetry in English firmly declares, “ Others wrote poems; Ezekiel wrote poetry”. Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS, Night of the Scorpion and Enterprise are up for reading in th ..read more

In the opening episode of this podcast, Prof. Nedumaran reads a couple of poems written by Kamala Das - My grandmother's house and an introduction. Enjoy! Production & Design: www.inscapemedia.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit profrn.substack.com ..read more

Welcome back to this week in poetry - episode seven. A poem is communicated before it is understood. Hence, a poem shall be read aloud heard, especially its music, its orchestrated sounds. The listeners shall feel those sounds before attempting analysis, particularly content analysis. Poems were read aloud in public, in durbars, in the presence of kings and people. And therefore this week in poetry is an effort at reviving the tradition of Kavi Samelans and Kavi Arangams where poets presented their work to the aficianados and lovers of poetry. Right. Without much ado, let's move on to the poem ..read more

Welcome back to This Week in Poetry. Oh, I am absolutely thrilled to be back with my listeners after a break. We shall begin our new season, visiting some of the great minds who made a huge difference to the ways creativity and poetic imagination would take shape in the 20th century. In this episode, we shall listen to couple of poems from W. B. Yeats, the Anglo, Irish poet, and two poems from the Tamil revolutionary poet of the 20th century, Bharathi Dasan. Adam's Curse by W.B. Yeats. Professor Harold Bloom calls this poem, a wisdom meditation. Quite rightly so. Meditation on hard work, bea ..read more