Ruskin Bond live streams poetry and book reading session amid COVID-19 lockdown

Two noticeable figures, Ruskin Bond and Srijato Bandyopadhyay, investigating various kinds and genres of work have discussed their work from home by live-streaming it for a large number of book-lovers who cannot go out for book reading sessions, poetry recitals and art events amid the COVID-19 lockdown. The Facebook post of the organisers of that live streaming session of an eastern-region based annual literary meet said this:

“We will post a video of a short reading by an author at 8 pm... we want you to end the day with good thoughts! Today we have a writer without whom the lit meet is incomplete!! Watch this space,”

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Poet-lyricist Srijato Bandyopadhyay recited a short poem in Bengali on that page during the live streaming session and the recital got lakhs of views. Srijato read out the lines of one of his poems in Bengali, penned earlier to capture the gloominess, the forlorn spectacle of a city during rains. The poem had these lines:

“Reclining against the pillow, I watch the overcast gloomy sky as the roads are flooded,”

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Ruskin Bond read his brilliant work at live-streaming session of book reading

After that, author Ruskin Bond read out one of his poems on the same slot with his home as background. Ruskin Bond is an eminent modern Indian writer of British descent who has authored several inspirational children's books. He was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award to honour his incredible work of literature.

 He read the poem as, “It is a small poem penned not so long back,” Bond said and kept reading the poem which has phrases like “light the fire”, “bend to touch the flower”, “bend to touch a child”.

The book reading session had over 2.5 million views, and one YouTuber poured immense love for Ruskin Bond and said,

“It is such a refreshing feel to see and hear Ruskin Bond read out a poem from his room.”

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Image courtesy: @ruskinbondofficial

A renowned book store has also hosted a live book reading session on its Facebook page. The Facebook page of that book store posted videos of the live session and poetry reading of school children. There were also videos by prominent personalities mentioning certain titles that can be read by bibliophiles at home.

Riya Sen, a post-graduate student of Presidency University, said:

“The digital platform has given us a great opportunity to hear the discussion on arts, literature and contemporary issues in this hour of confinement. I can choose and see the show and even if I miss one segment, I can catch up with that by clicking on the link later.”

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