Lucknow Literature Festival: Revisiting Gulzar's life and work
Authors Yatindra Mishra and Sathya Saran celebrate Gulzar's literary legacy at the lit fest discussing his influence and humble nature
At the Metaphor Literature Festival, authors Yatindra Mishra and Sathya Saran came together for an engaging session- Zindagi Gulzar Hain on life, personality and body of work of celebrated writer Gulzar.
Author Yatindra Mishra who has penned the book on the living legend, Gulzar Saab: Hazaar Rahen Mud Ke Dekheen, shared his journey, explaining how latter's encouragement inspired him to write a book, giving him the opportunity to explore the various aspects of his life. He remarked that the essence of being Gulzar is that he constructed a complete Sheesh Mahal out of fragments.
"Gulzar is an institution in himself, a pioneer of the literary world. He is also a very humble human being. Today's generation can learn a lot from him. Whenever I meet him, I always get to understand life from another perspective. He has so much understanding of his craft that I feel no one can ever reach that level. We often do not talk about work, and that's why I know how he embraces life in its full colour and beauty," says, Yatindra Mishra.
Author Sathya Saran highlighted the magic of Gulzar’s writing style and his humble nature, discussing the poems she has translated.
“The toughest part is to understand, interpret, and translate their multi-layered meaning, as every line says so much," she said.
She revealed that she will next be translating 150 of Gulzar's poems.
Founding member of the festival, Kanak Rekha Chauhan recited Gulzar's poignant poem, written after the death of Jagjit Singh's son, where the combination of Hindi and English words weaved together to bring fore the emotion of life and sorrow.
The discussion also touched upon the song Is Mod Se Jaate Hain from 1975 film, Aandhi starring the late actor Sanjeev Kumar, where, upon hearing Lata Mangeshkar's voice, Gulzar Saheb considered his writing immortal, illustrating that an artist seeks not only words but also an eloquent voice.
The session concluded on the note that every poem is a blank piece of paper that the writer fills with his or her own thoughts, but only a few great ones, like Gulzar, are able to strike a chord with the readers.
