An off-centre world demands a rare breed of performers, driven by an unconventional impulse for everything and anything that the life has to offer. A representative of this new breed, Arpan Khosla, heartily designates himself to be a “Pomedian”, an upshot of the cross-over of a poet with a comedian.

He clearly knows how to be a good sport. Frolicsome to the core, he tosses off volleys of funny punch-lines at his audience who break into fits of laughter. His love for wordplay has been evident not only in his self-proclaimed role of a pomedian whose task is to seamlessly blend poetry into comedy, but has also prompted him to launch Rhymly , an all-inclusive content service Start-Up software that aims to manage the needs of the budding artists and the professionals by providing them a platform to look for Hindi rhymes coupled with its corresponding meanings and to discover other creative writers.

Credits: Le Artista
YouTube Channel

Of late, Arpan, has gained a far-reaching popularity because of the comical poetry video:”Na Samajh” which has grossed over 1.2 lakh views. This video forms a lasting impression on the complexity of a father-son relationship. Based on his experience, he reworks the tension that brews in the bonding when the son decides to choose an offbeat path in the pursuit of his dreams. While the son’s passion persuades him to follow an uncharted path shadowed by instability and insecurity, the father in vain attempts to reason with him. Increasingly humorous as it unfolds, the dialogue between the son and the father has undertones of discomfort and uneasiness in an equal measure. Exploring the nuances of the father-son bond, this ‘poemedy’ is a poignant retelling of the bitterly sweet, or perhaps the sweetly bitter story of parenthood.

Click here to check out some of his work.

The United Nations marks 26 June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Supported each year by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world, this global observance aims to raise awareness about the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society.

In Punjabi, Chitta literally translates to the colour, white. However, Chitta is also used to refer to synthetically produced drugs that include heroin and more specifically ecstasy, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide ) and methamphetamines.

‘Chitte Da Maara’ is a piece written and performed by Navaldeep and Nadeem, bringing a new bilingual English-Punjabi collaborative angle to poetry and talking about the drug problem that plagued Punjab.

The idea evolved with continuous performances and their feedbacks, keeping the same spirit, but going through a change in voice and language, incorporating a feeling of confused glee, frustrated anger and wistfulness and loss. The writing is more metaphorical and evocative, talking from the perspective of someone who is caught in the spiral of drug abuse, and his/her conscience reflecting on the waste and desolation caused by the habit.

Nadeem Raj is an unabashed romantic and gastro-poet, who tries to explore complex themes like love, displacement and cheesecake through his work, has participated in and won various poetry events.

Navaldeep Singh, a lover by default, a lunatic by chance and a poet by choice, grew to fame with his first poetry video Tiranga released by UnErase Poetry.

The duo, hope to spread the message of a society standing against drug abuse on this International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

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Himanshu Arora is a practising Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh and a faculty of Polity and Constitution of India for civil services aspirants. But, his knack for poetry makes him a poet by heart. He wishes to bring about a social change by the power of his words. He is well known for his stand-up comedy on “UPSC ki Taiyaari”. Some of his best works are on topics like Swachchta abhiyaan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao etc. which can easily be found on his Youtube channel “AroraJi Official”.

With his thought provoking poetry about social issues, this Engineer-turned-Lawyer has appealed to the masses by talking about regular things in a special way. A Tabla maestro with a graduation in playing Tabla, he has been playing it since he was four years old.

His work titled ‘Andekhi Aawaaz’ is a guide to many for living a life, full of positivity and optimism. This inspirational and motivational poem, represents a Blind man’s perspective to encourage the world. It reflects the real essence of life and manifests the aspect about introspecting the hidden truth, the hidden agenda of life.

It reflects life the way it ought to be seen and emphasizes that irrespective of every problem in life, the beauty and blessing of it remains intact forever. One should always, in every circumstance, be filled with gratitude for the gift of life.

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Call-centre workers have it tough. Like retail staff, they are frontline cannon fodder. They have the task of dealing with people who are in the majority of cases lovely and reasonable but also sometimes disgruntled and short of patience. If one works for 40 hours a week, the last thing one wants to do is spend 20 minutes on the phone to a stranger discussing why their bill had gone up 30%. But they do it everyday.

Everyday they sit at their desks and answer to all our queries politely no matter what is happening in their personal lives. They have the ability to multitask and micromanage things at the same time.

Click here to watch the beautiful words by Rakesh Tiwari as he describes his life of working at a BPO through this beautiful poem.

Credits: Tafreeh Peshkash

The power of questions, is often undermined. We often don’t realise what raising a question can achieve. Great ideas start with a “how”. Revolutions begin with a “why”. Kajender Srivastava attempts at questioning the gross injustice happening right in front of us.

Belief in faith and hope, keeps us standing. But blind faith? God, the creator, the destroyer, the ever forgiving. How could he stand and watch his creation cull those that cry for his mercy? How can he withstand the crimes being committed in his name?

The poet strongly believe that god helps those who help themselves, which means, his creations, who he created in his light. The elected leaders of this so called free world, their inactivity, and their attempts at materialistic rehabilitation will not bring the silenced laughter of a million little children back.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with an initiative. A question. What can we do? Ask yourselves, what can we do? We can open our homes, we can ask our leaders to let go of the inanimate concept of borders and welcome those who have lost it all.

Because we will always have this. The powers of hope, humanity, and questions.

Click here to watch the full poem.