The COVID-19 pandemic situation has just flipped the coin the other way round, and the pace in which human lives were driven, has all come to a halt, looking forward to alternatives. In this difficult situation, Mental Wellness is the key element that is getting damage. The concern is serious, and we at VIBGYOR are trying to put up alternative methods to boost that wellness factor though Art, the love towards art, the passion and the talents, that we have, but failed to explore during the usual rat race.
After Project-21, Art Scrapbook, this is the third attempt during this lockdown. The first-ever attempt fo VIBGYOR to explore Literature... rather Poetry, in more precise. And we are fortunate and thankful to all the wonderful participants, each one of them, they deserve a big round of applause for sharing their thoughts in rhythmic notes, in various languages.
There are a total of 156 poems received from 84 participants, from across 23 cities within India, and few abroad, in 10 languages. We are indeed overwhelmed to see this wide range of variation. The chart represents the 10 languages and their presence in comparison to the whole compilation of IRSHAAD-A Collection of Poems.
Let's see, now what are the reader's reaction. The feedback has been collected across an online form, and their response is compiled in this blog. Out of all the responses, few responses have been randomly selected for sharing.
Abhijit Sen, Kolkata
Vibgyor এর প্রয়াস Irshad বইটি সংগৃহীত কবিতার বাসা
এতে আছে রকমারী কবিতা ও বহু লেখনী প্রতিভা খাসা
নানা রকম ভাব আর নানা রঙে ও ছন্দে তা ঠাসা
কবিতা আছে নানা রঙের আর আছে দশটি নানান ভাষা
অপূর্ব সব লেখা সবার যদিও পেশাদার কেউ নয় , নয় কেউ লেখক প্রথিতযশা
এহেন অভিনব প্রয়াস জাগায় সবার মনে নতুন কিছু করার আশা
ছাপিয়ে গিয়েছে কবিতাও ভাব গুলি মনের অন্তরায় হয়নি যদিও অজানা আছে কিছু ভাষা ।।
Asha Elisha, Bangalore
Contributing to Irshaad was a wonderful experience and a great inspiration for my creativity. I am so grateful to you and your team for extending the deadline so that my sister and I could submit our poems. Please do include me in all your future endeavors. I wish VIBGYOR all the best in the future.
Dr. Kallola Kumar Swain, Mumbai
This is a great compilation. Huge work is done nicely. Even though I don't read many books, but I'm surely gonna read this. Thanks to IM Sir, team Vibgyor and all the authors. Congratulations.
Ketan Talati, Mumbai
Simply amazing, the collection of fresh poems in different languages is unheard of. Hats off to the team to garner and motivate such participation.
U are helping recognize the hidden talent of the members
Natasha Pereira, Mumbai
I have read a Poem - Chehra By Deepa Karappan, Mumbai. This poem not only just touched me but also my folks at home. It certainly brought the actuality of life on how women or men are perceived by theirs. She has bought out the bitter truth in a very subtle way. Hats off to her. I can't wait for more poems from her. Thank you to the VIBGYOR Team
Rupesh Chindarkar, Mumbai
An absolute delight to read the collection of poems. This is the first time I am reading something beautiful like this and more importantly I personally know many of the poets. Initiatives like these shall be conducted every year. Just loving it. Thanks
Sanchia Rebello, Mangalore
It was an amazing read. More such initiatives are always welcome. Also, if possible, do include the write-up about the Author/Poet if possible for the next time. Great initiative overall and I am thankful for having been able to participate and contribute to this initiative. Thank You.
Saraswati Krishnan, Chennai
Irshaad E-book is very well compiled by Mr.Indranil Mukherjee. The design, creatives - all done wonderfully. I felt justice has been done to everyone who contributed to this book - impartial treatment. Appreciate that.
Shraddhesh A Jadhav, Mumbai
First of all, I would like to congratulate VIBGYOR for this wonderful initiative; at the same time, I must appreciate the efforts put behind Irshaad. Not only this initiate has given the opportunity to amateur poets like us, to showcase our work and get it digitally published across all over India but also it would motivate many to think beyond Corona and one may even start considering as a new hobby.
I would like to suggest that we must have a VIBGYOR Kavya Sammelan / Shero Shayari after the end of the lockdown. We may have it on our family picnic or on a small get together or even we may have a separate event for all 4 cities.
Once again thanks for giving this opportunity.
Ulhas Muralidhar Kasar, Mumbai
The effort taken by you is invaluable. It is my pleasure that I happened to be one of the participants in this collection. The English abstract added in each poem has made it comfortable to understand the poems in other languages too which I am unaware of. Thank you once again.
Vikramsingh Rajput, Pune
आप अगर एक competition करवाये तो बहुत अच्छा होगा |
The above graphs represent the overall feedback received till date. About the presentation, we are glad that more than 50% of viewers have found it excellent. But beyond that, what really makes us feel good, is the intention, the motive of spreading a positive vibe. More than 70% feel the way this initiative has spread positive vibes during this lockdown is excellent. We really feel that's the success point.
Apart from the above comments, we are sincerely thankful to participants and readers who have critically analyzed and shared some suggestions as well. We have compiled all suggestions which are almost in common.
The page layout: Suggestions have been given to secure one page for one author only, and not to start a new poem from the middle of a page. Also, where two columns are used, that also seems visually distracting. Yes, we too are in agreement with your comment. However, we had to adopt that strategy to minimize the total number of pages, to reduce printing costs, especially those who intend to purchase a hard copy. It was done, for the end-user benefit.
Editing and spell check: At the start of the initiative, we have made this point clear that there will be no editing from VIBGYOR end. The reason was, we do not have the talent to read 10 languages, and if we edit one, and leave others, that will be a biased act. Hence, all submissions were exactly copied. We expected each participant to be careful with their submission. Please understand, proof checking 1 submission of your own is always easier than 156 of someone else with unknown languages.
Font parity: This is the case for all fonts except English. The obvious reason is, we didn't want to take a chance in that short notice, to proof check any content (as intimated in T&C), and in a regular keypad, copy and paste options for any other language apart from English may transform few alphabets, which could have literally changed the entire meaning of the word or phrase. So, all that we have received has been pasted as an image. Of course, everyone sent in their own preferred font and size. We thought of restricting it to form a parity, but, what we saw, that many people backed out when they were asked to type the poems in its actual language. So, we had to give up to this point and accept more content that hammering on the design aspect.
Personal bio: A personal bio was intended to be put up, but we dropped that plan when the number of pages crossed 200. Again, we took this decision to minimize the printing cost, as the motive was not personal promotion, but the promotion of talent and poetry.
We are indeed thankful to each and everyone who has shared such valuable feedback to our initiative. Yes, we too are in agreement with whatever shared. And we wanted to share our side of the story as well. We did such kind of initiative for the first time, and this was a learning for us as well.
Last but not the least, we requested for some voluntary donations from our readers, absolutely on their own, as per their own wish. We would like to thank them, for their contribution, which we intend to invest in more such wonderful initiatives in coming future.
Abhijit Sen, Kolkata
Ankit B Thakkar, Mumbai
Anu Elisha, Bangalore
Asha Elisha, Bangalore
Deepa Karappan, Mumbai
Joy Banerjee, Kolkata
Prashant Dhavse, Mumbai
Prisha J Bhanushali, Mumbai
Reena Sinha, Chennai
Riaan Bhanushali, Mumbai
Rupesh Chindarkar, Mumbai
Subadra Krishnan, Mumbai
Thejarathnam, Mumbai
We would love to see your support and participation to spread positive vibes through Art. Stay connected.
If you are yet to read the poems from Irshaad, please click here to read the digital copy. Apart from this, there are few more initiatives which may be one among your list of interest. Do have a look:
Please do check them, and share your feedback and suggestions in the comment section of this blog. Looking forward to hearing from you.
UPCOMING INITIATIVE
