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India: Dentist aims to heal sufferings induced by pandemic through poetry

Kolkata - Kiriti Sengupta brought out his book of poems in just a month

Kiriti Sengupta is a dentist-cum-poet who has brought out a collection of poems by leading Indian and international poets, describing the ongoing crisis and the struggle to get back to normalcy.

Hibiscus, the new book of poems, was brought out in a short span of a month by Hawakal Publishers, the firm that he is associated with. More than 100 poets including Keki N. Daruwalla, Sudeep Sen, Mamang Dai and Sanjeev Sethi, contributed their poems.

Sengupta told a newspaper that he along with his co-editors “chose a therapeutic way to alleviate our suffering induced by the pandemic. Hibiscus addressed the hardships,” he said.

“It did not only communicate the plight, it also mitigated our struggle back to normalcy – the anthology aimed at curating poems that sought to provide us relief from existential hazards.”

Following the success of Hibiscus (it sold nearly 400 copies, which is significant for a book of poems), Sengupta brought out another collection of poems, Shimmer Spring, showcasing the work of 39 poets from India, Pakistan, the US, the UK and Peru.

The hardcover, coffee-table book was brought out “to explore how contemporary writers derive and disperse light,” said Sengupta.

The dentist-turned-poet has edited seven anthologies, besides publishing nearly a dozen books of his own poems and prose. He quoted leading medical professional-turned-poet, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, who wrote recently about the ongoing Covid crisis: “In time, we will need poets and writers of the imagination to look through the looking glass — and tell us the stories of this strange, upside-down world. We will need more than a vaccine and a rebooted economy to heal us.”