"Healing Waters Floating Lamps" a poetic journey of Kiriti Sengupta's Poetry book launch At Oxford Bookstore,Kolkata
The Floating Lamps of poetry … Dr. Kiriti Sengupta's journey of Healing Waters Floating Lamps, his poetry collection unveiling at Oxford Bookstore Kolkata.......An evening of inspirations and poetic aspirations.
“I have seen the floating lamps in the river….prayer reach the mediating lord”- Kiriti Sengupta, Poet
Being Bookworms was delighted to attend Kiriti Sengupta's poetry book launch on the 24th of April [2015] in Oxford Bookstore Kolkata. The poet,critic,author, and translator — a man of many talents was relaxed and moving in a poetic world when we greeted him during his launch.
We feel that a poet is the thread which connects both worlds together and gives that hope to mankind that in the rat race, there are bards who are creating history and Kiriti Sengupta is one of them who is creating that path and leaving a strong message for us to learn from.
His books My Glass of Wine,a novelette based on autobiographic poetry, and The Reverse Tree,a non-fictional memoir have been bestsellers, and after co-editing three anthologies, writing for many literary journals, our talented poet finds time for poetry and inspirational verses that arise from our experiences in life. Kiriti's Healing Waters Floating Lamps is one such poetry book which is inspired by his experiences. 
( The poet, Kiriti Sengupta from left minutes before the big Launch, the guests from right Maina Bhagat Anjum Katyal, with Saira Shah Halim launching the book with others guests)
The launch hosted by Oxford Bookstore and Aarcee Enterprises attracted applauses and good wishes as Anjum Katyal, writer and critic, Sharmila Ray, poet and essayist, and Saikat Majumdar, author and academician unveiled the book with Saira Shah Halim, a corporate trainer and communication consultant who compered the launch and announced about the panel discussion to be followed soon after.
Maina Bhagat, Director of Oxford Bookstore welcomes the guests,poet lovers and the panelists to Oxford bookstore as they host Kiriti's book launch as the evening promised the gathering a journey into the captivating depth of poetry. The journey of Oxford has been a beautiful one and their association with authors and poets a milestone in literary circle. she wished Kiriti the best and showed her enthusiasm and love for poetry and poets.( Maina Bhagat addressing the audience in her opening speech during the launch)
(Anjum Katyal hearing the discussion); (Saira, Kiriti and Saikat listen to Anjum as she explains about the essence of poetry)
Saira opened the panel discussion by asking a question which we all felt was happening presently that poetry was coming back once again in our lives. According to Anjum Katyal who has been involved with theater and the publishing industry as she was the Editor-in-Chief for Seagull Publishing House for more than twenty years, poetry had never left.
Anjum explained, “There wasn't a time when people stopped writing poetry, but I think it moved out of the spotlight of literary world. It was there for those who sort it out. If somebody has that special connection with poetry it becomes a lifelong thing. Poetry was one of the first literary forms, we find that human dialogues were in verses; think of the Epics. It’s great that it’s coming back. It’s the most distilled form of language that we use, it makes things extremely simple by being extremely complex.”
(Saikat with Kiriti enlightening the audience with their thoughts on poetry)
Saikat Majumdar [who teaches world literature at Stanford University, U.S.A.] had different perspectives towards the deeper understandings of poetry.
He elaborated, “Poetry is aesthetically attractive. If our own philosophy of life has made room for something fundamentally not compatible to what we believe in then it has to be jolted as that is the quality literature and poetry needs. Poetry has remained for long. It has now become a way of life, it’s not anymore about just prints, and it has come into the main stream of our lives eventually evolving us.”
Sharmila Ray heads the department of History, City College, Calcutta, and the author of six full-length poetry books opined that , “Poetry is made of many emotions, if one is writing poetry you feel all your emotions. Like Kiriti who being a Dentist becomes a different person when he writes, he becomes a poet and the poetry flows out.”
According to Sharmila Sengupta’s, Kiriti's poem is a long journey where he tries to create a collective consciousness and his poems travel from the concept of “I” to “Us” like his first poem Beyond The Eyes:
“I reach the sky / While I draw a circle in the water / Looking at the image / I take a dip”
This is the door to Healing Waters Floating Lamps. Sharmila added, “Sengupta is asking his readers to take a dip in his poems. His poetry has the smell of infinity. It creates different imageries.”
Sharmila Ray particularly mentioned the poem Evening Varanasi. Sharmila had almost pointed out what some of the people present wanted to elaborate on and we liked the way the discussion was heading towards
Kiriti while reading out Indian Matrimony got a reply that the poem has similar kinds of events that the audience could identify with.
“After your sister’s wedding / Her in-laws never fail to pass their comments / Water and oil don’t blend at all … The venom does not fade / Does not float…”
Sharmila reinstated the quality of Kiriti’s poem when she pointed out that in the last line of Dusty Feet,
“God remained thumb sized with dusty feet.”
All of Sengupta’s poems have a chain connection that goes on and on. When Sharmila Ray read out from Color Code:
"They said you were black / They knew they were white / They loved their eyes /… This has been the Nelson Mandela Patch”
the audience clapped listening to the hidden depth in the lines. Poetry has that quality which can say things invisible on the surface of thoughts with abstract and rhythmic flow.
Saira Shah Halim’s poetic interest made us ask her about why she chose Healing Waters Floating Lamps book to compere and what she felt about the book? She said, “I loved the book, the title is very symbolic, the devotee of Lord Shiva places the lamps in the Ganges River in Varanasi. These lamps float for long without extinguishing; water heals and the lamp floats.”
On the other hand Ruchhita Kazaria, the brains behind Aarcee Enterprises had chosen this book launch because she had felt a soul connect to it; the poem Evening Varanasi was what made her choose as it has a spiritual and soulful feel to it while she read out some of her favorite lines form the poem and congratulated Kiriti on such a wonderful book.
Sengupta’s wife Bhaswati, who has been his pillar and strength, has seen his poetry blooming from a bud to a flower. She wants him to write as he loves it and has to say things unknown.
With the curtains coming down on a wonderful enlightening evening with such eminent poets discussing poetry and Healing Waters Floating Lamps we bid a due wishing Kiriti the best and inspiring him to write more.
Kiriti’s poem 'Secure A River' that Saira Shah Halim read out being one of her favorite poems scored for us and we felt to share a few lines so that our readers can really know about the thought process of the poet, and that poetry is a connection with divinity, after all:
“Hold on, my dear, The word denser does not necessarily mean thicker,
Divine blessings are frequently showered unconditionally...”
If you have really enjoyed reading about this amazing book we would urge you to buy it and get inspired.The book can be ordered on Flipkart and if you all are poetry lovers then you could review this wonderful book and make this talented poet feel special with your love.
You can order your copies now
You can find more about the book on the links given below
You can get in touch with the author and poet here....
We hope that our constant endevours of bringing poetry and prose in the forefront by introducing talented poets and authors form being bookworms platform you all, the readers are having a wonderful time exploring the joy of reading and sharing the love of books.
Keep reading, Keep smiling....until we return with another wonderful tale of the bards.
Regards,
Sufia Khatoon
Being Bookwormshttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=315626881910925&fref=ts
(Friends and well wishers after the curtains came down on the event made the evening amazing)
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