This semester, we had the pleasure of welcoming Manju Mishra, a Hindi poet. Here is her poem blog https://manukavya.wordpress.com/
We’d previously had experience with Hindi poetry last semester, when Bollywood lyricist Dr. Sagar led a workshop for us. Now with a broader vocabulary and more knowledge of grammar construction, the pressure was on to top our performances.
Regardless of the language—Hindi or English—writing poems is no easy task. I, and most of my class, approached the workshop with a little bit of apprehension. We had been working on our poems all week, but there was still much we didn’t know.
We had learned a little about Manju ji’s background earlier in the week, when Kusum ji shared an interview with her. When the workshop began, Manju ji addressed us both as Hindi and poetry novices, breaking down writing into simple components.
A poem isn’t a complicated work of art, it’s a way to write down an idea in short words to follow a meter in a tune. Manju ji named three essential components of any poem: rhythm/flow, feelings, and presentation. While a poem doesn’t have to rhyme, there should be an inherent beat that allows the words to flow. Some feelings should be expressed in the poem, which could include friendship, love, family, nature, and more. Lastly, a poem should be able to describe a scene or a pass along a thought/message well in short words. There are many different kinds of poems, including Rhyme poetry, Free Verse, Haikus, and Songs.
Sharing two of her own free-verse poems, we immediately got a sense of the possibilities poetry can open to us. Her first piece, यादों की अलमारी (Wardrobe of Memories), was about taking the step to revisit old memories, and her second, प्रेम (Love), was about the delicate nature of love. Both were impactful, showing the range of emotions that can be brought to the table.
We spent the rest of the workshop revising our poems from earlier that week, fine-tuning our rhythm and selecting the best words to convey our feelings. As we each shared, I was amazed at the range of topics we chose to write about. Some of us wrote about love - love for ourselves, love for others, and even love for our dogs - while others wrote about the environment, friendship, and social justice.
There was almost a universal sense of accomplishment across the class. Manju ji listened intently to each and every word of our poems, leading the group in applause and kind critique. She named points of improvement that helped our Hindi and our poems. It was evident the passion Manju ji had for poetry, and made each of us want to further develop our work.
Other students from the class had the following comments:
Pippa said, “I enjoyed the class a lot, and I appreciated how Manju-ji adapted to our level of Hindi. She was probably the guest that I could understand the best, and when she went over certain vocabulary for writing the poems it was very understandable. I also appreciated that she took a lot of time with everyone’s poem and gave really great feedback that got shared with us later as well. I’m not super interested in writing poetry, but the workshop made it much more enjoyable for me. I think I might even prefer writing poems in Hindi than in English because it’s more of a fun exercise of learning a deeper connotation for our vocabulary.”
Rachita said, “This was a really great class! Manju-Ji was really engaging and kind. Being able to take that creative license with my poem was really fun and forced me to practice the vocab/sentence structures in a way that didn’t feel like work. Although there were points during the poems where I did not know all of the words, Manju-Ji going over the vocab not only made the workshop more interactive but also helped me better understand the meanings behind her work. All in all it was a really great experience!”
Sahil said, “I really enjoyed how Manju Ji spoke very clearly and slowly. She was very easy to understand and she explained the different types of poetry very well. I also enjoyed hearing her feedback on my poem -- it was very constructive. Writing Hindi poetry was a very interesting experience because it forced me to say things simply and concisely using the grammar and structures I already knew. I can definitely tell that my Hindi is getting better, as I had a much easier time writing this poem compared to the poem workshop in Hindi 101. I would love to see Manju Ji return to our class and continue writing and reading Hindi poetry with her.”
There was the validation that not only had we come a long way since August, when we first learned the Hindi alphabet, but we could string together our learned vocabulary to create works that conveyed a message to others. Coming to that realization was very encouraging, and will be one we carry forward as we continue learning.
Please see our creative writing here. https://sites.duke.edu/dukehindi/2021/04/09/poem/
This workshop was sponsored and supported by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke Service-learning and David L. Paletz Innovative Teaching.