CITYBUZZ - Bengaluru, April 8, 2011 9

Poetry all the way

Poetries Online has announced its new contest - the winners will not only be feted at their
next National Poets Meet, but will be published in their fifth poetry anthology
SONALI DESAI Indus Valley. As the theme indicates, poems, as we are waiting for more partic-
the poems may cover anything that por- ipation.”

A
dmit it, you too have fancied
yourself a poet in high school.
Or at least scribbled a few lines
on an old notebook that you secretly
flip through now and then. Then it will
surely gladden your poetic heart to
know that a new poetry website,
Poetriesonline.com is holding a contest
whose 100 winning entries will be pub-
lished as compilation.
According to the website, their edi-
torial board will select the best 100
poems from the entries, with a maxi-
mum of two entries for each poet,
which will be published in Indus Valley,
the fifth volume of their poetry antholo-
gy series in 2012. The anthology is
expected to be released at their third
National Poets Meet scheduled to be
held around the new year of 2012,
although the details of the event are yet
to be confirmed.
The contest is open to all, although
contestants will need to register as a free
member on the website, where they can
post their entries under the category
trays our mother land and its true spirit,
but is not restricted to purely nationalis-
tic. Only English language poems are
eligible, and each poem can have a max-
imum of 25 lines. The last date of sub-
mission is August 31, 2011, and they
have received about 50 poems so far
and are looking forward to active partic-
ipation from poets across the country as
well as abroad.
Gopakumar Radhakrishnan, man-
aging editor of Poetries Online told City
Buzz, “The idea is to show India in the
form of poetry to the outside world. It is
going to be about India, its culture and
heritage.” He also added that based on
the poems chosen for Indus valley, the
editorial board will select the three best
poets from the series who will be hon-
ored for their achievement by their
community of poets.
Mr Subramanian who is one of the
members from the Selection board says,
“The theme based on depicting the histo-
ry of India, right from the prehistoric
days. We have still not short listed the
Aruna Kumar Tripathy from
Hyderabad, who joined the website
nearly three years ago, said he is plan-
ning to submit an entry for the contest
that is based on nature, the core theme
of all his poetry. Mayank Sharma, a
member from Delhi says, “I have not
yet started to jot down my poem for this
anthology but I think the subject is very
good. While the poets express their feel-
ing for the country, it will help them and
their readers discover various hidden
aspects of the nation and its culture.”
Ashima Gulati says that a broad
theme such as Indus Valley would help
bring out the best from poets of all age
groups, and adds, “Every age group
thinks so differently and especially
youngsters' poetry will naturally be dif-
ferent. Earlier we have had topics that
had only a single word like 'change,'
which was often abstract, and our
thoughts would revolve around this one
word. But having a topic like Indus
Valley would draw many more perspec-
tives from poets across the country.” Poetries Online’s earlier anthology of poems, Change

RADHIKA VITLA that interest them. area for them, so they place special

Skylarks to D eepa, a second PU student,

lost her parents at a young
age. Her only support was her
grandmother, who at the age of 65
Skylarks now works on different
social projects including sponsoring
the education of slum children,
counselling children addicted to
alcoholism and drugs, planting trees
emphasis on girls who are talented
but cannot afford to pursue studies.
In 2001, Skylarks volunteers repeat-
edly visited a village named Kere
Thanda near Hospet in North

the rescue
supported her grandchild by work-
ing as a house maid in their native
Erode in Tamil Nadu. It was a daily
struggle and her grandmother soon
found that she could not continue
to educate Deepa. That's when she
Formed by young techies, Singing heard of Singing Skylarks, and to
her relief, the organisation agreed to
Skylarks wants to make a difference fund 30 percent of Deepa's educa-
tional expenses.
to people’s lives – through music This is just one of the many
heartwarming examples that form
the track record of Singing Skylarks-
Music for Cause; an organisation
started in 2006 by a bunch of music
enthusiasts working in different
software firms in Bengaluru. The
Singing Skylarks band came into
being after these twenty musically
inclined techies came together with
the idea of doing music concerts for
charity, with the proceeds going to
different causes and charity organi-
sations.
After they made their presence
felt at concert venues across the
city, the band started attracting dif-
ferent artistes, volunteers and
donors who wanted to be part of
their cause. The group gradually
grew to around 50 members in two
years and now it has reached the
impressive number of 165; with the
core group of seven members at the
ALL FOR A CAUSE: Members of Singing Skylarks, a charitable organisation heart of its operations, and others
started in 2006 by a bunch of musically inclined techies. pitching in for projects or causes
in and around Bengaluru and so on.
Their volunteers also visit villages
and the outskirts of cities on week-
ends to identify children who need
education and help those who are
employed in hotels, shops etc to
pursue education by the side. Once
they identify a cause, they then go
about raising funds for it, mostly by
performing at corporate events or
shows.
Venkatesan, the founder of
Singing Skylarks, is a 28-year-old
who works in a consulting firm. He
recalls with pride incidents where
they really could make a difference.
“One of these was of a child who
was addicted to smoking and drink-
ing at the early age of 12 years. After
we got to know about him, we coun-
seled him to quit smoking and
drinking and arranged regular visits
for the child and parents to
Nimhans' tobacco de- addiction
center. Very soon, the child showed
signs of recovery and quit the habit.
It was really a very happy moment
for us.”
One of the recent projects of
Skylarks is at the Sristi Special
Academy, where they provide coun-
selling for physically disabled chil-
dren and sponsor 30 percent of the
school/ college fee of second PU
students. Venkatesh says that
women's empowerment is a focus
Karnataka which lacked basic
amenities, providing them with
books, geometry boxes, pencils,
Rings, skipping ropes, chess boards
etc, and holding counseling sessions
for the local students.
Recently, they have initiated a
project for teaching dance to stu-
dents in government schools. The
project, which was started by
Skylarks volunteer who has learned
Bharatnatyam for around 10 years,
has started its first training pro-
gramme teaching nearly 25 students
in a government school near
Hebbal.
The Skylarks are also active in
the environmental movement,
recently rejuvenating and beautify-
ing an almost dead lake near
Bagmane Tech Park with the help
of volunteers from Motorola India.
In appreciation of their efforts, they
were awarded the CEO award for
volunteerism 2009 by Motorola
foundation.
Apart from Venkatesh, the
other core members of Singing
Skylarks are Ganapathy Ayyappan -
vice chairman, Gunasekaran - presi-
dent, Sagar Aurovind- general sec-
retary, Jeyakumar- treasurer, Satya
Prakash Patil - joint secretary and
Pradeep - convener.
For more information visit:
www.singingskylarks.co.cc