“Freedom lies in being bold”
– Robert Frost
Poetry has always proved itself to be a medium of expressing one’s heart, one’s bold and raw thoughts about any issue wrapped up in a properly arranged group of words. Every poetry is disparate and noteworthy and when someone like Diksha Bijlani thinks of speaking her heart out, those few lines attain the power of bringing a social change.
Let’s peep into the life of the National Youth Slam Poetry Winner, a speaker in TEDxAIIMS, a girl who wants to be called or known as a Grammatically correct thinker and not as a writer with a short little conversation:
In conversation with Diksha –
1)Hey Diksha! Tell us something about poetry…like what is poetry for you?
Poetry is a medium to fight the battles around me, and within me. I strongly believe that battles which are against the mind and mindsets, can primarily be fought with words. So that’s what I do, I employ words as weapons in this fight.
2)What kind of stories do you love reading? Who is your favourite poet?
(You mean poems?)
I love poems which borrow from personal experiences to arrive at a larger principle, or sassy poems directed at bigotry. My favourite poet is Dominique Christina!
I love poems which borrow from personal experiences to arrive at a larger principle, or sassy poems directed at bigotry. My favourite poet is Dominique Christina!
3)As a kid were you always interested in poetry?
Not really, my family had no ambience for literature and the only poetry I was exposed to was in academic curriculum. I liked the subtlety in the artform, but that was about it. I was actually more of a fiction person, I found great strength in reading stories and deriving morals from them.
4)Do you feel butterflies in your stomach when you think of any big performance? How do you manage to handle that?
Not really; on the contrary, I am very calm at the thought of big performances. Sometimes, even eager and impatient for the occasion so I can share my story and hear others’. I think the select times I do feel anxiety is before performing a new poem, or a very vulnerable poem. I handle it by continually reciting the poem in my head, and deep breathing.
5)Tell us something about your other hobbies?
I love Indian music vocals, I love doing math and reading physics for catharsis. I love the domain of academics too, it gives me an immense sense of purpose.
6) On what themes do you basically love speaking?
I write about issues which are Indian in nature – such as language hierarchies, I write about mental health, about the women’s movement, being queer, and my personal stories. Once, I also did a very nerdy duet on poets romanticising science without understanding it!
7) Is there any message that you want to convey through your poetry?
I want to send across the message that you can always speak up, speak out, and speak against. There is a safe space to hear you out, it exists and we are going to understand and hold you.
8) Any advice that you would like to give to the youth?
Don’t let this world make you feel like the bad guy for standing up against something. Most people don’t want to do the emotional labour involved in dissenting, so they expect everyone else to “chill” with their movement too. Don’t let them brand you killjoy when you call out little things, with the realisation that those little things add to the bigger problem. Be rebellious, and always, always give a damn about issues. Surround yourself with people who do.
9) What is the thing about any issue that triggers you or makes you pick up your pen and start writing or thinking on that?
The fact that people don’t even know the issue exists. This is what my poem on High Functioning Depression came out of, this is also what my poem on the hegemony of English language in India stemmed from. I think the motive of educating others through my poems is stronger in me than self-expression through poetry.