In Chandigarh for an event, poet-lyricist Irshad Kamil goes down memory lane and recollects fond memories of City Beautiful
Sheetal
“Coming to Chandigarh for me is like ‘a-low-on-battery-cellphone-gets-its-charger,” said poet and lyricist Irshad Kamil, who graduated from the Panjab University and also worked with The Tribune newspaper. As he visited Mulk Raj Anand Auditorium, Arts Block I, PU, for an event, ‘Chandigarh Language Congress’, Irshad talked about the theme — ‘Towards a Comparative Cosmopolis: Language, Culture and Hybridity’.
About his initial years, Irshad joked that he always wanted to prove that he was an intellectual. “I used to love local papers which featured poems and other literary items. I sent my poems to them, but those were never printed! Later, I worked as a journalist for many years. Later, I thought Chandigarh was not taking my talent seriously and moved to Mumbai.”
Irshad paid due regard to his teachers sitting in the crowd and veteran Punjabi poet Surjit Patar, who also had a session. He said, “All these seasoned writers and teachers are making me nervous. You have grown up reading Patar ji, you cannot just say anything before him. I hope I am making sense. Also, as a lot of youngsters are sitting here, I am trying to say things in a way that they don’t come across as a lecture to them. I always try to connect to youngsters.”
Irshad candidly talked about the difference in writing poems and songs, “It’s way different. When you write poems, it’s for yourself and readers who would like to indulge in such writing. But when it comes to film songs, there are a lot of things that come into play. The characters, music producer and the situation plays a part in writing a song, but then there is also the pressure that the song should be a commercial hit, catchy and something to hold your attention for a longer period.”
As for social media, Irshad said, “Much has changed, the focus of young budding writers is to give quantity and not quality, which is something they should work upon if they would like to stay in this profession for long.”
