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New Delhi:
Humour, love, education, relations, secularism and politics -
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal touched on all
this through his poetry at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia Tuesday
morning, keeping his audience spellbound, and a trifle surprised.
Addressing a house full of students and teachers at the
university, Sibal recited his poems from two published
collections.
The minister, who also holds the portfolio of communication and
information technology, started with his poem "Universal Mom",
which is a son's message to his mother that he does not want to
become a doctor or engineer. It was followed by "My very own
journey", a son's message to his father that he is not his shadow.
"It is surprising that a politician can be so sensitive, it was
really very exciting," Neeraj Saini, a student of MSc Mathematics
at the university said after the recitation.
The union minister, however, did not leave out politics
completely, and recited his poem on former prime minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee "Man behind the mask", questioning him on the
demolition of the Babri mosque. Another poem "Ashraf" talked about
discrimination faced by a Muslim boy.
"For the youth, it is a totally different dimension... the poems
are sensitive and he has talked very openly about issues, even
critical ones like secularism... It was very enjoyable," Ameena
Kazi Ansari, Associate Professor at the University's English
Department, told IANS.
Love was not left untouched either, as the enthusiastic minister
shared how he used to linger at the gate of some "girls college"
when he was young before reciting his poem "Lovers and the
chowkidar" amidst loud cheers from the audience.
Sibal has so far released two collections of poetry, 'I Witness:
Partial Observation' and 'My World Within'.
Translations of some of Sibal's poems, and art works based on his
poems were also displayed by the university.
Also present at the programme was Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung on
whose request Sibal also read out a soliloquy from William
Shakespeare's 'Richard the Third'.
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