AAZAAD FOUNDATION [REGD] and World Literature India, organized 3rd World Poetry Conference-III ONLINE at Chandigarh with the theme: LITERATURE IN DIFFICULT TIMES. Dr. Jernail S. Anand, Chairman of the Foundation, in his inaugural speech, dwelt on the idea that man’s march into civilization had come into direct conflict with nature and we need to revise our strategies. He underlined the fact that man has a great IQ, and EQ too, he has CQ also [Creative Quotient] but he sorely lack another IQ [Imaginative Intelligence]. He called upon the 130 participating poets from nearly 30 countries of the world to strive to work for a better world in which we could survive with dignity and divinity. Dr. Basudeb Chakraborti, Chairman of the Organizing committee welcomed the guests while the vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. Manminder Singh Anand, Secretary, Aazaad Foundation. The Inaugural function was curated by Secretary of the World Poetry Conference Dr. Parneet Jaggi and Meenakshi Goswami.
This 5-day online conference started on 5th June, 2021 with Dr Naji Naaman from Lebanon as the Chief Guest and Dr Maja Herman Sekulic, World Icon of Literature [Serbia-US] as the Guest of Honour and 15 participating poets from across the world. Literary personages from across the globe were honoured with Aazaad International Award in different fields: Dr Naji Naaman [Literature], Dr. Satish K Kapoor, [Philosophy and Spirituaity], Dr Dalvinder Singh Grewal [Research and Creativity], Dr Usha Sridhar and Dr Mirzana Pasic Koderic [Fiction],Dr Manpreet J Singh [Non-fcitoin], Dr Mutiu Olawyui [Literature-in-Journalism] and Dr Parneet Jaggi & Dr. Vikram Singht Deol [Historical Fiction].
The second day, 6th June started with a panel discussion on “Sociality in the Times of the Pandemic” followed by a poetry session. The panelists included Dr. Swaraj Raj, Dr. Lalit Mohan Sharma, Dr. Laksmisree Banerjee and Prof. Randhir Gautam. Mr Gopal Lahiri, eminent poet and reviewer from Kolkata, was the Guest of Honour and Ibrahim Honjo and Ashok K. Bhargava both from Vancouver, Canada participated as distinguished guests.
The third day, 10th June began with the Book release ceremony, in which over 15 books of English poetry and literature and also translations into German, Macedonian and Albanian of different authors were released. The major highlight of this ceremony was Classic World Poetry a book of poetry done jointly by Dr. Maja Herman Sekulic and Dr. Jernail S. Anand, and the Call of the Citadel, by Dr. Parneet Jaggi and Dr. Vikram Singh Deol. It was followed by three poetry sessions with an enthusiastic participation of over 45 poets.
The fourth day, 12th June started with the Panel Discussion on “Literary Creation as the Fall out of Social Reality. How much does it affect the Contemporary Reality.” The panelists included Arindam Roy, CEO, Different Truths, Dr. Bina Singh, Dr. Deepa Chandran Ram [Australia] and Prof. Mandakini Bhattacherya. The Chief Guest of the day was Amb. Ljubomir Mihajlovski from Macedonia. It was followed by 2 poetry sessions with over 30 poets who participated with great enthusiasm.
The fifth day, 13th June opened dramatically with a round of discussions in the panel on the theme- “Effect on Personal Relationships and Children Psychology under the Pandemic”. The panelists included Dr. Basudeb Chakraborti, Dr. Kalpana Purohit, Prof. Surindera Lal and Dr. Jay Basu. The poetry session saw a wonderful presentation by over 25 poets. The chief guest of the day was Dr. Satish K. Kapoor and Rajiv Ranjan Roy, Dr.K.K.Rattu, Prof. Brahm Jagdish Singh and many other luminaries from all over the world.
The conference intended to provide a platform for sharing of creative ideas and succeeded in touching every corner of the world for disseminating creative thoughts and the pain that we feel in these difficult times. Over 130 poets from more than 25 different countries like Lebanon, US, Canada, Australia, Serbia, Tunisia, Russia, Greece, Italy, Romania, Pakistan, Macedonia, Nigeria, Philippines, Malaysia, Mauritius, Thailand, Egypt, Jordan, Romania, Albania, Doha, Muscat, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and almost all parts of India presented their poems and articulated their ideas on the theme of the conference making it a thorough success. Poets of all age groups ranging from the budding young 16 year olds to the senior poets rendered their poems. The Conference also saw renditions in foreign languages like Greek, Italian, Albanian by poets, later translated by them in English also.
The entire conference was conceived by the Chairman of the Foundation, Dr. Jernail S. Anand and executed with finesse by the Organizing Committee, particularly, Secretary, Dr. Parneet Jaggi, and Anchors Dr. Sushmindarjeet Kaur, Dr. Tejwaswini Patil Dange, Dr. Shobha Sharma, Prof. Seema Jain, Dr. Sumedha Bhandari, Dr. K. Sandhya Rao, Prof. Mandakini Bhattacerya, Meenakshi Goswami, Raj Babu Gandham, Tariq Muhammad. The organizational support was provided by Dr. Mukesh Grover, Dr. Kiran Preet, Dr.Manminder Singh Anand and Prof. Randhir Gautam. Dr. Manminder S. Anand, Secretary, Aazaad Foundation, welcomed the guests, while the Vote of Thanks was proposed by Dr. Parneet Jaggi.
World Poetry Conference-I was organized on 13-14, Oct. 2019 at Bathinda, and on 13th Oct, 2020, online. WPC-III has been organized under the spell of the pandemic, yet it has succeeded in giving its message very candidly to the world, which was spelt out by Dr. Kiran Preet who read out the Prayer and the Solemn Pledge by the Poets:
The Poet invokes you, O Cosmic Forces
For giving him the power
To bring joy to mankind.
Alleviate suffering with word and action
And bring harmony in the world of bird, beast and man.
Lend him your judgement,
And your love for justice,
Compassion for the downtrodden
And a spirit
To stand up to injustice and barbarity.
I, your poet, promise to cultivate
The values which help mankind and spread
The message of love.
Across the nations and nationalities of the world.
