Indian lawyer and politician Kapil Sibal's poetry collection 'Reflections' was launched at a gala event on Friday evening, September 23, 2022, at the Taj Palace in New Delhi. As the title suggests, in 'Reflections' the Rajya Sabha MP shares his views, in flowing rhyme, on various themes like politics, freedom, justice, truth, love, among others.
Speaking about Sibal and his poetry, author Namita Gokhale said in her opening statements at the event, "My old friend Kapil Sibal is a man of many thoughts. He is politically forthright, he has a keen sense of justice, and he has never been afraid of standing up for his beliefs. He is also emotional-- he can be tender and very introspective. All these aspects of his are reflected in the pages of his book 'Reflections'".
The book launch was followed by an engaging discussion between Sibal and businessman-author Suhel Seth, as the latter posed questions on poetry, politics, religion, judiciary, and other issues to Sibal. The duo also read portions from the book, which gave the audience a glimpse of Sibal's thought-provoking poetry.
When asked what made him write these poems, Sibal told Seth that he always believed that we come to this world for a short time and so one must sometimes stop to reflect upon what's happening around us. “We are here for a short time. In this short journey, what are you going to take with you? Nothing. You were born naked and you’ll die the same way. That is what's going to happen... Poets have the ability to see reality as it is. Religion is about supposition. Philosophy is about the proposition. Poetry is about the way we are. A poet sees something from near and also from afar,” Sibal said.
Talking about the issues in the country's judiciary system and what needs to be done, Sibal also said, "Where will the poor man go to get justice? They don’t have the money to fight court cases... The system has to completely change. We need a set of rules and ideas to deal with this. The problem is that people are hyper-- they want to come to the Supreme Court, then they want to head one commission or the other..."
Seth then stirred the conversation towards religion and asked Sibal why it has become such a massively weaponised political-social tool.
To which Sibal responded, "It's happening all over the world. It was complete intolerance of what happened in Leicester. We all know what happened there... The real problem is, in India today those who are part of the hate speech are the collaborators of a particular ideology, the police are not willing to do anything, because they also collaborate. In this process, the whole system of justice gets polluted. Whoever gives a hate speech is not prosecuted and so he is emboldened to give another speech of that nature. People are afraid and they get mentally ghettoized... We are living in constant fear. We fear the ED, we fear the CBI, we fear the state, we fear the policemen, we fear everybody. We don't have any trust in anybody anymore. That's very very sad. And the middle-class wants to live in comfort." Adding to this, he then read an excerpt from his poem 'Bold Lives'.
Ending the discussion on a high note and praising the author, Seth said, "Poetry is actually the harbinger of the literary form-- because it is both evocative and reflective. In this anthology, you don't just see a poet but the many wonderful layers of Kapil, and layers of concern and anguish. All of us who have done theatre would know that it's very difficult to project and portray anguish, while it is very easy to make people laugh. What Kapil has achieved through this anthology is to have the ability to allow us to reflect on the lives we lead, and the way ahead-- both as individuals and as a community, society, or nation."
Talking about the beauty of poetry, Sibal added, "There's something about poetry that actually transcends everything else. And I think we lose out because we always constantly read prose. What poetry can tell you, prose can never tell."
Also seen at the event were the who's who of Delhi's political, social, and literary circles, including politician-author Shashi Tharoor, author Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, author Kishwar Desai, Sharmila Tagore, diplomat-author Navtej Sarna, author Devapriya Roy, publisher Chiki Sarkar, author Sunita Pant Bansal, Former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, author Shivani Sibal, among others.
'Reflections' by Kapil Sibal is published by Rupa Publications.
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