Jeet Thayil is a widely published Indian-American poet. I had seen him read his poems in Jaipur Lit. festival in 2007. When I found out that he will be taking a workshop on Performance poetry during KG, I rushed to enroll.

I was asked to submit a sample of my work AND memorize it by heart. That was a toughie, but managed it somehow. The whole week saw me mumbling my lines.

I reached the venue, NGMA, at 2.15 pm, 15 minutes before time. I ran into the great man himself, being interviewed by some one. A tall man, with a shaved head, he had looked very austere on the stage in Jaipur. Here, with a casual attire he looked more approachable. When he found out I was there for the workshop, he asked me if I had memorized the poem. I said yes, keeping my fingers firmly crossed.

I went inside the NGMA auditorium where clips were being shown about big guys of performance poetry. In my mind I had always visualized this workshop as, sitting in a circle comfortably around our teacher and he gently pointing out our mistakes as we read. Here I was faced with a realio trulio performing stage. I sat there mumbling my poem.

Other poets arrived and Jeet took charge of the session.

First thing he told us was, we are actually going to perform on a stage and he was just an observer. Not to worry about making mistakes, the audience will love us for it (Sure Jeet!! That was so reassuring! )

Standing on the stage with the bright lights right into my eyes was an intimidating experience. I was asked to give my audience an eye contact. Couldn’t see anybody’s eyes. In fact, couldn’t see anybody, period. There were just the lights and me. Makes one feel very lonely. So I said my poem to those lights. Even added a few goof ups, just to make sure they will love me. Jeet suggested that next time I goof up I should just carry on with it, and no one will know.

In the next hour and a half Jeet explained how to use our bodies to get the poem across. A few poets had a theatrical background. After every recital Jeet would talk about the pluses as well as minuses of that performance. He explained how the emphasis on a certain word or a line will make the poem more powerful. The voice and the breath control was also discussed. Soon we could see an improvement in every one’s style. People started to keep the paper away and perform.

Just around that time, NDTV ( I think ) sent a camera to cover the event, and they asked our permission to shoot the performances.

We all did a second round of reading, this time keeping the suggestions in mind.

I came out of the auditorium, still mumbling my lines.