The Covid-induced lockdown and quarantine have acted as a catalyst for many to give form to their creative pursuits.
For Ranchi-born Swapna Sanchita, the centre director of a well-known coaching institute for professional courses, it was poetry.
A B-school graduate from IIM-Kozhikode and a civil engineer (from BIT Durg), Swapna's book of poems titled Des Vu (French for everything's momentary), was released last year.
“The lockdowns and quarantines we went through affected us in many ways. It brought us face-to-face with our mortality. Some of us were lucky enough to have the luxury of being able to do things we love. For me, this was indulging in poetry and getting Des Vu published,” says Swapna, wife of the senior bureaucrat and principal secretary to the chief minister, Vinay Chaubey.
Published by Damik Publications, Des Vu is a collection of 42 poems written by her over the last few years.
“They are not about the pandemic. They are poems of love, friendship, nostalgia and myriad other ordinary things. These poems are almost confessional, about personal experiences. An outpouring of emotions and thought. The poems are often written in free verse, and yet have a certain music to them. They look easy if you read them, but there are layered. Each poem is hardly a page long,” she says.
Swapna claims that a lot of "bookstagrammars" on Instagram have appreciated her book, and that it has garnered appreciation from poetry lovers too.
Swapna, who has had one of her poems published in MUSE, an e-journal published from Hyderabad, has her own ideas about the purpose of poetry.
"I feel poetry gives voice to thoughts. People keep asking why read poetry? This is just like asking why we watch movies or appreciate a beautiful painting. Poetry brings pleasure. It teaches a person to learn to appreciate words, language and eventually helps them understand other people... Through this understanding, we learn acceptance and appreciation of ourselves, others and all that keep us human."
