© Rochelle Potkar | Powered by The last I was in Hyderabad in June 2015, I ‘blinged’, with rain on my ear lobes and puddles percolating at my neck. But it was intentional. It represented the deluges of my city, Mumbai.
I met Nivedita’s sweet mother, Teddy – professionally called: Subhashini and Dr. Neal Hall, and spent moments of preamble with the stunning yet down-to-earth K Ramesh…
I read two of K Ramesh’s poems from his book at the book launch of ‘Little Friend’. What a wonderful collection of poems it is. So powerful, so simply rendered.
After Neal’s powerful rendering of poems on racism, I read three of my own: baby, skirt, and deer, away from my pieces on personal injustices. Then we set on to launch the third issue of Neesah on the theme of women in love/ woman and love. This issue is now available on Amazon and Flipkart.
I interacted with many interesting people after the event.
At some sweet moment, Akila, Nivedita’s mom, and Subhorup (Dasgupta) mentioned the rain and I tried zooming my glance out at those pearl drops, dilating my eyeballs. It’s not rain to a Mumbaikar if your hips, thighs, and waist don’t wade in the wet, and no one’s talks of boats, divers, and manholes.
As the evening blew over, I walked out of the venue and picked up five men who were hanging around waiting for Godot. I used the most innovative pickup line in the world: “Hey, what are you guys doing this evening?” And they turned out to be poets from the Secunderabad poetry club.
We had haleem – my first venture into it — and some crazy conversations that can only be had amidst abject strangers caught under a drizzle and happenstance.
But I made new friends!