This week on Bol, K. Satchidanandan read his Gandhi and Poetry (1993). A simple, fluid conversation between Gandhi occupied with his charkha, and a personified Poem standing at his door, this poem is a reminder of what power lies in words to make connections with daily struggles of the people. Gandhi’s injunction to the Poem to speak for the common people or else retreat into silence, remains ever pertinent.
“But you must give up this habit
of speaking in Sanskrit at times.
Go to the fields. Listen to
The peasants’ speech.”
