On July 13th, 2018, the audience at The Z’s Precinct witnessed a soulful evening filled with poetry, readings and music. Ipsita Ganguli, the phenomenal woman in its true sense, left the audience in awe of her versatile personality. Through the poems of her book ‘Of Love, Longing and Random pondering’, she took her audience on a journey through the divine universe, to find meaning within oneself.
A Political Science graduate from Presidency College, followed by a post graduate in International Relations from Jadavpur University, Ipsita Ganguli is a former hotelier turned entrepreneur. Throughout her diverse career, she has concurrently been a poet, debuting with her solo book of poems “Of Love, Longing and Random Pondering.”
The evening was also graced by three other panelists and many eminent guests. Rupa Chakravarti, a prolific multi-faceted persona, presented the evening with her graceful words and mesmerizing music. She introduced the poet in a rather unusual way, describing her with the colors of the rainbow. Later she beautifully recited ‘The Shiva Trilogy’ from the poet’s book.
Followed by this, Supriya Roy critiqued the poetry, commenting on the style, form, et al. She is an excellent storyteller, an academician of excellence and a true educationist. She also happens to be the poet’s teacher. She termed Ipsita’s poems to be autobiographical and introspective. She noted that the lucid usage of words reminded one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘Sonnets From The Portuguese’ and ‘The Cry of the Children.’ She also pointed out that nature has been addressed to as ‘you’, ascribing characteristics of the Romantic era to the poems. She praised Ipsita’s versatile style and commented on how certain poems like ‘Pallu-Politics’ also had the influence of modern poets.
Among the three panelists, Gopa Bhattacharya spoke on the reader’s perspective of the book of poems. She shared her personal experience of how she met the poet and how the poems made an impact on her life. The entire session was made even more enjoyable by Sudipto Biswas, a musician and journalist who accompanied the poetry session with soulful Rabindra Sangeet on the mouthorgan.
The poet herself recited a few poems from her book and in a later interview said that she was heavily inspired by Vikram Seth, especially his novel ‘Golden Gate.’ She says she is a shy poet and was not too sure about coming out in public with her poems. Her journey started with e-poetry groups who recognized her talent and motivated her to take it forward. She says that she writes because she has to. Since then, she has never looked back and is determined to explore the world of poetry and present to her dear audience more of her splendid work.