Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Chandni Singh, Janakpuri & Reading
Poetry in the city.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The Delhi Walla arranged to meet poet Chandni Singh on the online video call service Skype. Ms Singh, who spent her “happy childhood years” in Delhi where she has a house in Janakpuri, lives in Reading, UK. In her mid-20s, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Rural Livelihoods.
“Usually words come to me while I am walking – I take long walks all the time – and I quickly type them on my phone,” says Ms Singh. “I scribble lines and words while on the bus, or during a classroom lecture, or in the midst of talking to a friend, or just before falling asleep, or immediately after waking up in the morning. When the poem seems complete, I stop.”
A devotee of poets such as William Wordsworth, Charles Bukowski and Sylvia Plath, Ms Singh shares a poem with us.
Bubbles
I overrate happiness.
Exaggerate it.
It assumes
Bollywood proportions
and rainbow colours
in my world.
I had this
little chat today.
Shouldn’t we just
do away with the notion
of Love?
I barely comprehend
it anyway.
We should
look for our bubbles of happiness.
Yes,
the Exaggerated
over the top kind.
Bump our bubbles
into others’.
Till they merge into this
obscenely gigantic
balloon
of hilarity.
And happiness.
And even when
they burst.
As we know they must,
The laughter
can colour
my dreams
a purgatory purple.
As part of the series Delhi’s Bandaged Moments, The Delhi Walla is searching for poets in the city. If you are one, please contact me at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.
Poet Chandni Singh
1.
2.
3.
4. (Photo by Gopal)
[…] Chandni Singh in Reading, UK Be Sociable, Share! TweetRelated […]
Persevere. Good use of vocabulary.
As a Dilliwala (Janakpuria to be specific), it was wonderful for me to read a creation from a kindred Dilliwali, one who has really traveled around Dilli – first as a Vaseline smeared kindergartener in a yellow school bus, then as a hip college going babe hanging on to DTC buses, braving eve-teasers, losing mobiles, then as a PG at TERI haggling with autorickshaw-wallas. Later she burnt the midnight oil (literally – with all the power-cuts) to get her scholarship, negotiated with sleazy touts for her passport and visa. She is still down-to-earth despite earning the sobriquet of ‘phoren returned’. She can still bargain with the kabadiwala, muck around the gullies of Old Delhi on heritage tours or volunteer in animal shelters.
A proud Mama, seeing a Blob evolve into a bubble creating poet.
Thanks for the post, Jane Austen fan.
this ‘bundle-of-talent-poet’ is amazing! reading what she creates is such a pleasure! her writings are sensitive and touches a chord within…potrays everything so beautifully. she brings out the essence of all that she sees and feels.we can almost live the moment and experience it…thank you God for pouring a bit of Yourself into some who are able to share this gift with all around and make our hearts and souls smile!!! i am eagerly waiting for this talented writer to bring out a book!!!
You found another M.