Poetry performance and launch of SIGHT MAY STRIKE YOU BLIND (in English)

by Sampurna Chattarji in concert with Sanjay Divecha

Reality, surreality, sensuality come together as poet Sampurna Chattarji reads from her new book Sight May Strike You Blind (Sahitya Akademi) in concert with guitarist and composer Sanjay Divecha.

As Keki Daruwalla writes in his foreword to the book, "Hers is a poetry of subtle impressions, far-off correspondences (but never far-fetched!), dissimilar images moulded into a poetic whole. She experiments fearlessly."

So come see poetry in a new light – a play of music and word, speech and silence, silence and clamour, clamour and song. A song to the city of 'Dogs, Mobs and Rock Concerts'; a song of 'Darkness', of 'Fear and the Smell of Old Sheets', of 'Pleasure, Forbidden'; a song of learning to look…and learning to look away.

SAMPURNA CHATTARJI is an award-winning poet, fiction writer and translator.

Her poetry has featured on Hong Kong Radio; in the international documentary Voices in Wartime directed by Rick King as well as in journals and anthologies including First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Writing from India 2; Fulcrum Four: Fifty-six Indian Poets (1951-2005) (US); Imagining Ourselves (US); Wasafiri (UK), Wespennest (Germany); Slingshot (Canada); The Little Magazine and Chandrabhaga (India). Sampurna is an Executive Committee Member of the PEN All-India Centre, Mumbai; on the Editorial Board of its Journal Penumbra, and is a key organiser of the monthly literary event PEN@Prithvi in Mumbai, featuring poets, journalists, filmmakers, novelists, activists, academics and others. Her first book of poems Sight May Strike You Blind has just been published by the Sahitya Akademi.

SANJAY DIVECHA is a guitarist and composer. His influences range from Western Folk and Rock to Blues and Jazz. Having started his career in Mumbai, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1987. In 1988 he enrolled at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood , and studied guitar with Joe Diorio and Scott Henderson among others. While in Los Angeles , Sanjay's "eclectic approach and forcefully-mature playing" made him part of the LA live-music scene, where he played myriad styles, including African, Brazilian, R&B and Gospel. As an active member of the Los Angeles studio scene, he played both acoustic and electric guitar on movie scores, jingles and albums, and recorded with world-renowned West African vocalist Angelique Kidjo and the legendary Carlos Santana. Back in Mumbai since 2003, Sanjay is an active member of the Mumbai music industry. He has spent the last two years composing and recording a collection of songs for his new album, where he is exploring the colors, sounds and languages of India .