The other side of Sibal: Minister recites poetry

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Humour, love, education, relations, secularism and politics - Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal touched on all this through his poetry at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia Tuesday morning, keeping his audience spell-bound, and a trifle surprised.

Addressing a house full of students and teachers at the university, Sibal recited his poems from two published collections.

The minister, who also holds the portfolio of communication and information technology, started with his poem "Universal Mom", which is a son's message to his mother that he does not want to become a doctor or engineer. It was followed by "My very own journey", a son's message to his father that he is not his shadow.

"It is surprising that a politician can be so sensitive, it was really very exciting," Neeraj Saini, a student of MSc Mathematics at the university said after the recitation.

The union minister, however, did not leave out politics completely, and recited his poem on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "Man behind the mask", questioning him on the demolition of the Babri mosque. Another poem "Ashraf" talked about discrimination faced by a Muslim boy.

"For the youth, it is a totally different dimension... the poems are sensitive and he has talked very openly about issues, even critical ones like secularism... It was very enjoyable," Ameena Kazi Ansari, Associate Professor at the University's English Department, told IANS.

Love was not left untouched either, as the enthusiastic minister shared how he used to linger at the gate of some "girls college" when he was young before reciting his poem "Lovers and the chowkidar" amidst loud cheers from the audience.

Sibal has so far released two collections of poetry, 'I Witness: Partial Observation' and 'My World Within'.

Translations of some of Sibal's poems, and art works based on his poems were also displayed by the university.

Also present at the programme was Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung on whose request Sibal also read out a soliloquy from William Shakespeare's 'Richard the Third'.

--Indo-Asian news Service

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