The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Looking at things from a distance, Kapil style

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Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
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Looking at things from a distance, Kapil style

Staff Reporter

City witnesses reading session of Union Minister’s poetry collection

Photo: S.Thanthoni

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal and Member of Parliament Kanimozhi at a book reading session of “i witness” in Chennai on Tuesday. —

CHENNAI: This history teacher-turned-lawyer-turned-politician likes to look at things from a distance. Interacting with Member of Parliament and poet Kanimozhi during a reading session of his book “i witness” here on Tuesday, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal said: “You must look at yourself by disengaging yourself from the body. Then you will find out who you really are. There are two yous – the one within and the one without.”

He said looking at things from a distance allowed one to know the reality of things. “The more you look at things from a distance, the more beautiful they seem. And the more you come near them, the uglier they are.”

Mr. Sibal, who has penned his thoughts on varied subjects such as the 123 Agreement, nanotechnology, love, politicians, feminism, the Universal Mother and terrorism, said his poetry was mostly satire on India and about contemporary issues. He took just about three-and-a-half months to pen nearly 100 poems in the book, which has been published by Roli Books.

Mr.Sibal who uses his mobile to pen his thoughts during long flights, said he never thought that he would ever write a book, especially poetry.

“There are lots of books in my mind and I am in the process of writing them. But I never thought my first venture would be poetry. That was an entirely unintended venture. It was the result of boredom on long flights…”

Poetry allowed him to delve into issues that one otherwise would not delve into. “It is an expression of the internal turbulence that goes on not just within a human being but within society.”

On the trust vote, on which he has penned a poem, he said he felt “terrible that in the citadel of so-called justice, which is symbol of our sovereignty such crass things happened in front of our eyes. It is something that disturbed me deeply.”

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