Indian Writing

In response to the Berlin International Literature Festival’s appeal
for a worldwide reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry on October 5, 2008
Gallerie-PEN India-Jnanapravaha come together to commemorate the life and work
of the world-renowned Palestinian poet with an evening of readings.

Readings of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems by

Gieve Patel, Sampurna Chattarji, Prabodh Parikh, Yuki Ellias,
Anand Thakore, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Bina Sarkar Ellias.

October 5, 2008
6 pm
Jnanapravaha, Queens Mansion, 3rd Floor, G. Talwatkar Marg (Prescott Road), Fort, Mumbai.

—

A slaughtered house is the severing of things from what they meant, from the feelings they inspired. It’s the duty of tragedy to change the gaze of eloquence and to reflect upon the life of Things, for in everything there’s a being that suffers: a memory of fingers, a memory of a smell, a memory of a picture. Houses are murdered just as their inhabitants are killed and the memories of things are slaughtered: stones, wood, glass, iron, mortar - scattered like human limbs. Cotton silk, linen, exercise books, books - torn apart like the unsaid words of people who did not have the time to say them. Dishes broken, spoons, toys, old records, pipes, doorknobs, the refrigerator, the washing machine, pots, jars of olives and pickles, cars - all broken, like their owners…