Mysore/Mysuru: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Nehru Yuva Kendra, Mysuru, had organised a Bahubhasha Kavi Goshti (Multilingual Poets Meet) in association with Kannada and Culture Department at Youth Hostel auditorium in Saraswathipuram recently.

Multilingual poets were invited to exhibit their poetical expressions and to exchange views, opinions about the unity of Indian culture as well as National integration. In all, 16 poets presented their poems in Arebhashe, Kannada, Tulu,  Hindi, English, Marathi  and Kodava languages. 

Dr. B.R. Jayakumari, Principal of Mahajana College, who inaugurated the programme by lighting the lamp, also recited her poem and guided other poets, especially the upcoming poets. 

Naveen, Sriraj, Manjumani, Pramod, Daksha Malagatti, Arjun, Paripurna, Lakshmidevi, Vijayakumar and Fatima belonged to student category. The varied topics selected by these youngsters were appreciated as the sensitivity and belongingness was visible as  they put forth their experiences, their language of mind, the difference between the village and city life,  the gratitude towards the soldier fighting on the borders of nation, the beauty of joining to sing the song in one tune, etc. 

 Vinoda  recited on the theme of the programme — Diversity and National Integration — while Dr. Nirmala from Bengaluru recited her poem which was full of patriotism. 

In senior citizens’ group, N.B. Kaverappa of Bharani Art Gallery and Raghupati Tamhankar presented poems in Kodava  and Marathi respectively. As such Kodava, Tulu, Kokani, Sindhi, are few languages which do not have script of their own and have remained only in spoken form, but whenever writing these, people take shelter of the language of the Region or State where they reside. Geetha Montadka of Rangayana was lively while presenting her poem in Arebhasha (Old Kannada).  

Music critic and writer Dr. Manik Bengeri, who presided over the function, opined that language is the medium of communication and poetry is a way of communicating with subtle expressions in a few words. Poetry is for self-satisfaction which is described in Sanskrit as ‘Swantasukhaaya – Bahujanahitaaya,’ she said and stressed upon the high values of our culture which teach us to have broad attitude towards the entire world and treat the Universe as one family. 

Paying rich tributes to our ancient culture, she  said such cultural exchange programmes help in developing cordial relations between all people.  The need of the hour is to unite and understand each other. Elaborating on this point, she said we must learn lessons from nature by looking at a tree  which always grows upward along with the branches  without having any conflicts between the branches. All the branches grow from the space available to them without disturbing others. 

Later, Dr. Manik Bengeri also recited a Marathi poem on Corona effects and ordering Corona to go away permanently. 

Chindagiri Gowda welcomed the guests after invocation to Lord Malleshwara in Janapada Geethe. Meena Mysore, an experienced stage artiste and retired Government employee, who was the Coordinator of the programme, recited a poem based on Gandhiji and his ideology.