Indrajit Ghosal, a senior analyst at an MNC , moved to Gurgaon about five years back. He found that the city lacked something direly - no, it wasn't the power cuts and water storage that bothered him. Being a part-time poet, he couldn't find any poetry reading culture in the Millennium City, and so he went ahead to create one.Indrajit, a resident of DLF Phase 3 , says, "Having been to various poetry groups and events elsewhere, I realized that Gurgaon doesn't have much of a poetry culture. So, we started Poetry Darbaar in February this year. It aspires to create poetry hubs in Gurgaon. It's an initiative to indulge in poetry and art by conducting meets which are attended by poets and poetry aficionados. We aim to provide a platform to poets and artists to come out and perform in the presence of a receptive audience without fearing any kind of criticism. It also gives an opportunity to emerging poets to rub shoulders with established poets, which would only encourage them to carry on. We have become the most sought-after poetry group in Gurgaon in just five months.'READ ALSO: Has Hindi poetry found its way back into film songs? Poetry Darbaar, since its inception, has had five sessions and the footfall is increasing with each session. "Our forum is at par with the poetry groups in Delhi. There are poets in Gurgaon who've never had a platform to present their work and in five months we have been able to reach out to them. We had the confidence that, if we started anything like Poetry Darbaar in Gurgaon, people will come. In our first session, 90% people were from Delhi, but now, majority of the attendees are from Gurgaon. And interestingly, we don't get any casual participants. Whether they are mature or still learning, they all are very serious about their writing.""Corporate employees, homemakers, retired people - all are part of it and some of them have never recited a poem," Indrajit says. He adds, "Caferati, a poetry event which used to give chance to poets in Gurgaon, would see only a handful of speakers. But if 50 people participate in our session, 40 of them recite their poems. We don't charge anyone anything. Anyone can come here and recite their poems. People mostly get to know about us through word of mouth. Even budding stand-up comics and musicians come to attend the sessions and request to perform. So we are developing a concept where some selected poets can recite a poem with live music playing in the background.'READ ALSO: ` Comedy is the best way to communicate' The initiative has provided many poets the platform that they've never had. Aparna Pathak, a resident of DLF Phase 2, says, "I've been a poet for six years. I would submit my poems to magazines to publish, but Gurgaon had no forum where I could recite my poems. I write Haiku form of poetry and there are not many takers of that. In Poetry Darbaar, I met people who appreciated my style."Neelam Madiratta, a homemaker and resident of Sector 92, writes poems in Hindi, English and Punjabi. She says, "Going to Delhi's poetry clubs was not convenient for me. So I always wished for one in Gurgaon. Poetry Darbaar gives an equal opportunity to evolved poets and newcomers."But what is the need of a poetry community when one can easily post their poems online? Nitin Kumar, a banker and a poet, and a resident of South City 2, says, "Poetry is a medium that needs to be recited. The likes and shares on social media are by people who can't judge the difference between a good poem and a bad one. At a poetry club, you meet like-minded people.'So what lies ahead? "Taking cues from Gurgaon's success, we have started Poetry Darbaar in Bhopal , followed by Allahabad recently. We plan to extend its reach to many places where the culture of reading poetry is missing," says Indrajit.

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