by DAISY ROCKWELL, MANGALESH DABRAL, SHUBNAM SHREE
Shubham Shree
Shubham Shree’s irreverent Hindi poem Poetry Management has been awarded the 2016 Bharat Bhushan Agrawal Prize by renowned Hindi author Uday Prakash to howls of rage from the Hindi poetic establishment. Daisy Rockwell’s translation of the poem is accompanied by Hindi poet Mangalesh Dabral’s explanation of what’s got the critics fuming.
Poetry Management
By Shubham Shree
Writing poetry is bogus!
Yeah, and useless!
Totally.Unprofessional profession!
Part time!
Why didn’t I do some MBA-type thing?
It’d be a blast, man!
I’d write a poem; the SENSEX would fall
The poet Mr So-and-So has written a poem against capitalism
The SENSEX has fallen
Chatter on the channel
This is an example of the fall of American imperialism
Will America be able to control poets inspired by Venezuela?
Assurance from the Finance Minister:
Have faith, small-time investors!The RBI will immediately increase the repo rate
Hubbub in the media
A contemporary poetry collection is coming out:
What do you think, how will the common man, the aam aadmi, deal with this collection?
SMS your response to us
But hey, the glory of the CPO (Chief Poetry Officer) will skyrocket!
Ads will show up for every programme:
Reliance Digital Poetry
makes life poetic
Tata poetry –
Every word just for you
People will hang poetry in their drawing rooms
Ooh, it’s so lovely!
Seems like something by someone from Sahitya Akademi!
No, sir, it’s imported
The original is worth millions of dollars
This one’s a copy
Children will write essays:
When I grow up I want an MPA
LIC Poetry Insurance:
Your dream is ours too
DU, Poetry Honours, cut-off sky-high
The girls have come in first again
In the PAT (Poetry Aptitude Test) exams
Students have burnt the VC in effigy
Protesting PAT reservation cheating
Approval granted for eight new poetry institutes
At only three years of age, three thousand poems memorised:
India’s tiny miracle
America, anxious about the situation in Iran –
Defeated by the Farsi poetic tradition!This is All India Radio
Now you’ll hear the news in Hindi from Seema Anand
Namaskar!
Today the Prime Minister departs for a three-day International Poetry Conference
All the country’s poetry groups are participating
The Foreign Minister made it clear that India will not change its poetry policy for any price
The India-Pakistan Poetry Negotiations were again unsuccessful
Pakistan demands India retract its claims on Iqbal, Manto and Faiz
China again tested new poetic adornments
Sources say these adornments will now create the most powerful
poetry collections in the world
India’s foremost poetry producer, Mr Wandering Lover – Ashiq Awara – died at dawn today
More attacks on Dalit poets in Utter Pradesh today
In the meantime, in games, for the third time running,
India has won the gold medal in Antakshari
India won the match in straight sets, 6-5, 6-4, 7-2
That’s the news for today!Today’s Hindu, Hindustan Times, Dainik Jagaran, Prabhat Khabar
The kids are going crazy for the latest poetic hairstyles
Poetesses share their short and long vowel secrets
30-year-old MPA boy –seeks homely, convent-educated, traditional bride
25-year-old MPA girl: fair, slim, tall – seeks suitable groomDude, this is fun
Keep talking
I’m gonna be a hero
Handing out autographs everywhere I go
It’s gonna be awesome, dude
Shut up, man
Third Division MA
Who’s gonna pay for an MPA?
Enough of your bullshit!
Sit down and proofread— Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
A note is a note is a note
By Mangalesh Dabral
Twenty-five-year-old Hindi poet Shubham Shree is in the centre of a poetic storm. Her poem “Poetry Management” was selected for a prestigious award established in the name of the late poet Bharat Bhushan Agarwal for 2016 by the well-known poet and short story writer Uday Prakash, one of the jury members.
The selection gave birth to a huge uproar on social media, with a number of people damning the poem because it apparently mocked the business of writing poetry in a world full of careerism, pragmatism and worldly wisdom. The propaganda was so vicious – bordering on vulgarity and misogyny – that some senior poets who are active on Facebook, etc., had to come forward to defend the young poet and poem in question. The entire episode became disgusting, not to mention depressing, for the young poet.
Shubham Shree has been a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, a renowned institution, much maligned in the recent time by the Bharatiya Janata Party Government in India and many communal ultra-rightist organisations affiliated with it. She has a number of brilliant poems to her credit.
Most of her poems deal with the inner world of the Hindi academia, leftist politics, male chauvinistic behaviours and radical feminist discourse. Much to the chagrin of the bosses in Hindi academic world, she has kept dissecting the reality behind the mask of scholarship at the level of higher education.
Irony, dark humour, questioning and extremely playful language have been her weapons of dissection. With these, she has created a niche for herself in a short time while remaining aloof from the literary hullaballoo.
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