As part of expanding its mandate, and reaching out to nurture the creativity of the young speakers of different Indian languages in the Delhi-NCR region, ILF Samanvay has also announced an interesting youth poetry contest as part of the festival: The HIR-PITHARA YOUTH POETRY CONTEST.
The mascot of this poetry contest is the resplendent figure of HIR—the ageless, androgynous, itinerant storyteller.

Speaking of Hir, Rizio Yohannan Raj, Creative Director of ILF Samanvay said: “Hir (Pronounced ‘heer’) is a quintessential insider-outsider, true to the time and the theme-zone wherein hir arrives at ILF Samanvay in Delhi. Hir is a child-adult of the future, and begins hir travel mid-way, in classic medias res, at ILF Samanvay. Hir is pronoun and noun at once; Hir is a child’s self expression as well as an adult’s quest for meaning. Hir represents the ‘samanvay’ of the self and the other in our fragmented times. Red-robed, Hir is the self-same heart of pure revolution and ardent love. In the coming days, we shall see Hir extending hir travel from Delhi to different time zones, varied spacescapes, carrying hir Pithara’, gathering creative voices from among the young and the young at heart of the country. Inspired by the 8-year old Adel Tushar Kumar’s uninhibited painting of a storyteller, Hir is given its current form by ILF Samanvay’s Graphic Designer Sakshi Jain. Hir stories, written by our Assistant Team Coordinator Himanshi Sharma are going to be a regular feature of Y: The ILF Samanvay Blog.

ILF Samanvay 2015 invites poetry submissions for the HIR-PITHARA poetry contest 2015 in all Indian languages. One can submit any number of poems in one’s original language, on the theme ‘Insider/Outsider’. The length of poem has to be limited to one A4 size page, and has to be separately submitted in the specified format, along with a translation in either English or Hindi. Poetry submissions can either be made online in the requisite format available on www.ilfsamanvay.org or dropped at the Hir-Pitaras (Poetry bags) kept at the IHC campus in Lodhi Road and in select locations. The hard copy submission must mark the name, age, address and affiliation of the participant.

Seven poets from different languages will be selected and they will be invited to read their prize-winning entry at the theme session of ILF Samanvay 2015 on 27 Nov 2015 evening, along with senior poets from different languages.

This journey of Hir in the context of ILF Samanvay through the historical city of Delhi is to map, mainstream and celebrate Delhi’s hidden pockets of creativity. ILF Samanvay invites young people in the city to write poetry in their own languages and reclaim vitality of a region that inspired many a poet and artist to make monumental works of beauty for generations to cherish.