Media release
Mangaluru, Sep 12: Kavita Trust, which works for the promotion of Konkani poetry, is organising James and Shobha Mendonca – VII Endowment Lecture on Poetry on Saturday, September 15 at 4.30 pm at St Agnes Conference Hall , Mangaluru . Renowned Gujarati and English poet and fiction writer, Prabodh Parikh will deliver the lecture on the subject 'Poetry as a way of life'.
The James and Shobha Mendonca Endowment Lecture on Poetry is an annual programme and this year is in its seventh edition. It is an occasion to interact with distinguished poets. Since the year 2012 renowned poets like Gulzar, Ashok Vajpeyi, Jerry Pinto, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Keki Daruwala and Prof Sitanshu Yashaschandra have delivered this lecture.
Kavita Trust, founded in the year 2002, is a registered Trust working to popularize poetry, with a particular focus on Konkani Poetry. The Trust takes up number of projects to promote poetry. Spreading its wings in Konkani region, it has brought different dialects of Konkani under one fold by being the platform for poetic expression. It has taken the richness of poetry to the doorstep of the layman by way of poetry sessions, seminars, talks, symposiums, festivals and competitions. In the last sixteen years, Kavita Trust has held around 153 programmes related to poetry. These workshops have helped many poets and poetry lovers to study and understand the nuances of poetry.
Prabodh Parikh is a poet and fiction writer who mostly ends up writing letters to friends in Gujarati and English. He studied philosophy in the US in seventies and retired as a teacher of Philosophy in 2005. At present he is Faculty In-charge of International Art Literature and Culture, Whistling Woods International, a film school in Mumbai. He is also the Director of Katha Centre for Film Studies, which is involved in project related to Film Curatorial Practice.
Prabodh Parikh studied philosophy at University of Bombay and Oklahoma State University in '70s. He taught philosophy from 1974 till 2005 at Mithibai College, Bombay from where he retired as H.O.D of Philosophy. He has been a Charles Wallace fellow at University of Liverpool, UK to research on Wittgenstein and Buddhism. In 1999, he was awarded a fellowship to be at the University of Sorbonne, Paris, France.
His lifelong love for Jazz (Village Vanguard, New York), Beer (pubs everywhere) and Sada Dosa (Tiffin services in the streets of Thiruvananthapuram), takes him to different cities of the world, where he also lectures on contemporary Indian Literature, Arts and Cinema. Gandhi and Tagore continue to engage him, as much as, Buddhist monasteries.
Since 2011, he has been delivering talks, seminars on Rabindranath Tagore's paintings and writings at Universities and cultural centers in Australia, France, Spain, Germany as well as in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata on behalf of Ministry of Culture, Government of India, ICSSR, Sahitya Akademi, National Gallery of Modern Art. He is Visiting Fellow, University of Sorbonne, Paris, Summer 1999, conducted seminar on Aspects of Indian Literature, Cinema and Paintings.
He showed his drawings and paintings in San Francisco, 1973 and had 5 solo exhibitions of drawings and paintings. Besides, he delivered many Lectures/presentations on prominent Indian Painters - Rabindranath Tagore, Tyeb Mehta, K G Subramaniam.
He has published articles on various aspects of Gujarati Literature. He is the author of 'Karan Vinana Loko', collection of short-stories, 1978 and 'Priya Bhayani Saheb', Selected Letters in Gujarati (1978-2000), 2002. ‘Kaunsma', collection of poems, 1993, won several state level awards for him.