One

kritya’s story is very interesting, I was working for the fellowship on the subject- the Seeds of mind, a fresh approach to Atharvedic study, Dr Panikker was discussing the topic in between as usual. when I told him that most of the hymns of Atharvaveda , which were earlier considered as black magic, have a bit of philosophy or social culture history, He was agree at this point that most of the literature changes the meaning in such a big span of time, and due to socio-culture changes in the society.
a word kritya was haunting me again and again, as the kritya word is used in Atharvaveda as some kind of verbal spell, as people pry to dieties to save from kritya dushanam. ( the sin or affect of kritya) My question was – in this case a world power was called kritya, and it was used to destroyed enemy.

I was amused to see that how the power of word or shabda shakti was understood at that time.

and my another doubt is- why word power is always bad, it could be good also,,,

yes… and this could be politic power,

here I decided to take name kritya for my future ( at that time ) project – the journal of poetry….

 

 

two

 

When did I devolve love for poetry? I don’t think I loved poetry much as a student. Even in the college while reading Kalidas, Bhavbhoti etc,I could not develop the passion. Now I feel that was due to bad teaching of the poetry. Our poetry teachers explained the poetry, in place of let us getting in to the layers of the poetry.
.JStill I was writing some thing, which was not the poetry in my dictionary, as was very different than what I was read. I was not the student of contemporary literature like Hindi or English, so was not very sure, what do I write. In place of poetry I loved the philosophy, culture, history All credit goes to our poetry teachers
JMy whole passion was with stage performances, like debate, Elocutions, and Dramas,I starting in Hindi than in Sanskrit. I don’t know how I used to lean big duologue with ease. And I always enjoyed the stage. I started this journey of stage performance at the age of 11 as debater. In upper schooling I was more on the stage than my classroom.
In colleges, ( I was moving from one city to another because of y fathers job) early college time only I was away from stage, that is because I think that college did not have any culture programme of good slandered . once I return to my own city Jaipur, I was again busy in the debates, but this time Sanskrit debates, alas,,,, no theatre.
In university I was doing lead roles in Sanskrit theatre. Oh yes, I was writing also, but did not knows what was that . Once I showed my writing to our teacher- Hariram Acharya ji, and he declare it poetry.
Suddenly world became upside down for me… an era of my life started, here there was no space of words from books; the whole knowledge was travelling around the things, which were not never known to me.
There was a new language, a new family, a new thinking and a new society. Here I learnt that gossiping is a social entertainment, the jokes can be red, blue and green, and so many new things.
Oh God, this is a tough acting, I thought. In this stage, you leave your own self; you are not acting as an artist, but as a monaster. Because when you act a role as an artist, you are honest to your self and the person, whom you are presenting on the stage, but here every thing is artificial.
I was restless, strangely the notebook scrabbling was giving me some relief
And thus poetry or some thing in name of poetry saved me from this artificial world,
I went back to re-education, in the world of words, and in a time, my whole family was talking about literature, politics, social culture systems, in place of gossiping.
Poetry came to me from my back door, and remains with me until today.
Now I can say, the poetry is the best therapy
Officially I took poetry only in my forties, and journey is always on, reading, writing, and talking to poets, taking part in poetry festivals, and so on.
The Kritya is journey of poetry like me, and several others.
Poetry can save any good or bad time, only thing to go to her with open hands

 

Three

 

I have to plan for kritya almost 6 to 8 months ahead, the real planning starts with a promise of a base fund. This time, I got the idea of base fund in March April it self, from Raza Foundation. the first step is the selection of the poets. and a relevant theme. As base support is always sufficient for the local hospitality,The selection is not easy process, as i can select the poets, who have travel support from culture or private organizations of their countries. As good Poets around the world are not rich and it is difficult for them to buy tickets for them.

This process continue for long, because so many times, I have to apply for them, and some times the process is long. Once the list is over, I try to apply for the culture grant, which is subject to availability, but with number of formalities, and some times i dont get any thing.

I mostly don’t go to private parties, because, i dont want to convert Kritya in to Masala festival, some Rap, some media, some swami, some spice, and done….

The participant list is never final, as some poets dont get fund to make in the festival, and i have to understand. meanwhile translation is the biggest work,which go in the back ground, keep insisting poets translators and try to keep contact is not easy job for me, as i am not very good in Malayalam,

I go to local govt also, but some how, as a poet, I cant bag … and Moseley my bag is empty.

Still people find a number of logos on our presentations, because each poet is taking help of a few culture supports of their country, and and kritya has to show gratitude to each supporter by putting their logo. some times, one poet have four logos ( :))

Than comes book publications, other printings materiel, for publicity Edina Berna is working for kritya for three years, and she is good,

I mostly dont get help during preparation in management, unless I pay from my nose,

Than I leave every thing on poetry. actually the strength of kriitya fest is the good poetry, and good translations and the young people, who come at last to read translations. and some good hearted people who help us.

I dont say that i don,t have any support, because i get some unexpected support, for eg, I have to write press note in Malayalam, and the written note, what i got was not good at all, Than Kayakarra secretary came to talk about the fest with his team, and i made them write the note,,, 🙂 So I know very well , how to use others power.. 🙂

Though people say- kritya is one man show, but i know, it is only poetry show, and i am the servant of kritya akka poetry

In this poetry Festival, I am looking forward to some young people, who came forward to help me

 

 

kritya once again

Four-

Our basic idea for Kritya was to take the festival in different languages groups. Until 2005, there were a few literary festivals in India, so it was nice to go to different places, with the help of local host. After first international poetry festival in Kerala in 2007, we went to Punjab in 2008,. We used to take help of local host for hosting part; means stay food of the poets etc. Than next year we have gone to Mysore, and than to Nagpur. The Nagpur experience was so bitter that I feel like coming back to Kerala, and it was good also. The 2012 festival was so good, but spite of my all affords, the college students were not sent to the festival by college teachers. We have again gone to Wardha Antararashtriya University, so we can to go to the students.
I started feeling that my style of work is very different than common work culture in our country. We talk more, but work, less. We Indian believe in Jugadh. And the young generation is more interested in taking shortcuts
So, I decide to work from Kerala, and try to bring the audience to the poetry.
The festival was success in 2014, but we could not develop the interest in young one. Young people used to come and take poets for the tour, the artist will come and start doing their business, and thus the aim of poetry festival lost.
In 2016, I have plan to go to different places with poetry, like colleges, Asan Smarakam, and hospital, it was a small festival with very number of poets, but I had a bit satisfaction. This time we could reach to a number of people. Story after festival was different, as I was targeted by a conspiracy by three trustees.
It was difficult for me, but by now I understood that Kritya can not be easy for me,.. during or after the festival, I am going to be targeted and bullied by so many so called well-wishers.
I almost lost interest in Kritya, but than I got a basic support from Raza foundation, and I started my madness again.
This time people started joining Kritya automatically, and now we will go to public library, colleges. To the birthplace of a great Malayalam poet, Kumarasan, to his workplace and also we will support to BOOK ON THE BEACH LITTERARY Festival but taking our poets to the fest.
We will also visit prison and child care centres.
We will have performances, Poetry films and Poetry theatre, along with live Painting.
I hope to reach more people this time, with the poetry and with a motive
I know, the criticism, jealous and suffering is the art of any good work, so I have to make my self ready for it.