With less than a week left for APOGEE 2022, all clubs are gearing up for the first offline fest after a wait of two years, and Poetry Club is no different. Nandita, the club’s co-ordinator, managed to spare a few minutes and fill the AEP in on the club’s activities leading up to the fest.

The Club has been home to two kernel events for Oasis; however, they did not have a big presence in APOGEE until five years ago. Now, with three events under them, Nandita said that they have a more active presence in the fest. They will be conducting Conspiring Minds, a game-based event; Chaupal, an annual Urdu poetry event; and Poetry Slam, a slam poetry event for which the club gets poets from different organisations. These events will be held offline, with Rekhta Foundation joining them for Chaupal.

The club has a decided set of events they conduct each year, with added alterations to resonate with the theme. When asked about the status of the work, Nandita said, ‘We are almost done with the back-end tasks, with our speakers finalised and in the loop for Poetry Slam and Chaupal. For Conspiring Minds as well, the structuring is done.’ 

Talking about her experience as the coordinator, she admitted that it has been a huge learning experience, if not a little overwhelming for her. ‘I felt like walking into unknown waters, but looking back at this past month, handling logistics, learning how to get things done, contacting people, I’ve enjoyed working.’ she stated.

Apart from working towards the fest, the club holds regular reading sessions during which members discuss and recite their own poems as well as discuss literature. Nandita summed it up by describing the club as ‘a group of diverse people who are very, very culturally sound.’