Poet and writer Puranjay Khanna inaugurated the first set of individual poetry evenings, with advertising professional Urna Bose, herself a poet and a writer. The 31-year-old recipient of the 2022 Dadasaheb Phalke Icon Awards is “extremely grateful”, he tells us, to be presenting his work at the first poetry recital. Second Star: Poetry of the Conscious State, the book for which he won the award, is a record of his transitory states of life, right from age 12 to 31. The poems act like a chronicle of the emotional states he was in at various times in his life, progressing from the fears and hopelessness of a teenager, onto the sense of hope and stability that comes with adulthood.

“This book is meant to take you into your imagination, the place where you become introspective and wonder who you are as a person,” he explains. “The name comes from the film, Peter Pan, when Peter is flying to Neverland… he tells Wendy, ‘Second star to the right, and straight on until morning.’”

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The poet, who wears a bright red tilak, is eager and enthusiastic about life, and how it influences his writing. For him, his own writing acts like a time-travel portal, when he revisits the pages and sees the traces of his former self. “The poems are my own vulnerability out on display. On my 31st birthday, I published my poems, because they are a celebration of life, and what better occasion that denotes that?” he says. “Every single part of this book, is about life…it’s almost life itself.” 

“Through the poetry recital, I want to send out a message: No matter who you are, or where you come from, or what your situation is, it always gets better,” he concludes. “Your purpose will ultimately show itself.”