It was a gloomy, overcast Tuesday. The 8th day of July. A Padatik (an infantry soldier) bade final farewell quietly, all set to undertake another journey, ready for another long march. For humanist-poets like Subhas Mukhopadhyay, life was a battle-field and in this life-long strife, he was always one with the masses. Despite his intellectual brilliance and immense literary contribution, he never alienated himself from the mainstream. His was a style that was a complete deflection from the Tagorean influence and genre, and in this regard he can be considered a trendsetter of sorts. However, his literary works reflected only a slice of his multi-faceted brilliance. Despite being a successful poet and author, he remained till the very end an upright citizen, a political activist who braved all odds to speak his heart out boldly. Nothing could suppress this “ordinary” man’s zest for life. As long as his health permitted, Mukhopadhyay could be sighted at different parts of the city, attending street-corner meetings, marching with protesters on issues affecting the common man, even grabbing the microphone to talk about injustice and deprivation. With his white, flowing, unruly curls flying in all directions, his thick black-framed spectacles his crumpled white kurta and frayed pyjamas, he was a quintessential icon of the warrior treading on life’s uneven paths. Today’s literary forum meet, organised by Sahitya Akademi, is dedicated to poet Subhas Mukhopadhyay. Speakers include Khumanthem Prakash Singh, Soubhagya Kumar Misra, Sumita Chakrabarti, Manabendra Bandopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay.

When: Today at 5.30 pm

Where: Sahitya Akademi auditorium