Yesterday (June 21), the atmosphere at the Dhoomimal Gallery in New Delhi was filled with celebrations as renowned artist, poet, art enthusiast, and founding member of the ‘Group 1890,’ J. Swaminathan, marked his 95th birthday.
The event witnessed a large number of authors, poets, artists, and art enthusiasts who participated wholeheartedly in this celebration. Given Swami’s personal connections with poets of his time and his love for poetry, the event paid homage to Swami as a poet. It was indeed significant that during the inauguration of his own exhibition at the Dhoomimal Gallery, there were recitations of poems by various poets. The anniversary celebration continued the inspiring tradition of honoring Swami’s love for poetry.
The portfolio of Swaminathan’s seven poems, published by Dhoomimal Gallery, was unveiled by eminent poet and cultural activist Ashok Vajpeyi. These poems were critically appreciated by poets such as Kavita Nair, Dattatreya Apte, Anandamay Banerjee, Sushant Guha, Moti Jharotia, and Prayag Shukla. On this occasion, Ashok Vajpeyi delivered his speech on Swami’s poems and also recited his own poem dedicated to Swami, along with readings of other Hindi poets’ works written about Swami.
Under the series of art dialogues called ‘India Telling,’ the historic and significant book ‘Conversations with Swaminathan’ (Series Editor: Abhishek Kashyap, published with the support of Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi) was also launched. The book compiles 10 highly important interviews of Swami, conducted by Geet Patel, Kanhaiya Lal Nandan, Prayag Shukla, Vishnu Nagar, Asad Jaidi, Naval Shukla, Vinod Bharadwaj, Gautam Chattopadhyay, and Neville Tuli at various times. The book also includes Swami’s last interview, conducted a few months before his demise, by Yasmin Menon. Three of these interviews were conducted in English, and Akhilesh, the editor of the book, himself translated them beautifully into Hindi.
Additionally, the theater group ‘Meylorang’ from Delhi presented stage performances of Swami’s poems under the direction of Prakash Jha.
It was an extraordinary and intimate event that will be cherished in memories for a long time.
Pratiksha is an art enthusiast and writer.
