Events: Workshop on Story and Poetry writing at Raghabpur Campus.

Report from the Convenor’s desk – a one-day Workshop on Creative Writing at Raghabpur Campus, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Kolkata

Can creative writing be taught and learnt in any manner? Keeping in mind a positive response to this rather an inconvenient and controversial question, we, at the Bengali Department at the Raghabpur Campus of St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Kolkata had arranged a Workshop on Creative Writing on 23 March, 2024. It was the stepping stone of a larger project. The spirit was high, and still, it is.

The Workshop was hosted by Dr. Arundhati Das, Assistant Professor of Bengali at this campus. She managed the entire event very professionally as well as passionately.

The beginning of the Workshop on that day was marked by the welcome address by the Vice-Principal of Raghabpur Campus – Respected Father Johnson Padiyara, S.J. His short opening speech set the spirit and mood of the entire Workshop.

Thereafter started the main programme with the address of the keynote speaker, Mr. Sanmatrananda. In his unique way of addressing, the entire house remained mesmerized till the end of his speech. He not only inspired the participants and the organisers; he also gave lessons to the young participants about how to read and understand literature. His unique way addressing, not didactic, but familiarizing with the key topic was a boon to all the participants.

The mentors of our one-day Workshop were writer Kanishka Bhattacharya, writer Anirban Basu, poet Aditi Basu Roy and poet Hindol Bhattacharjee. All of our mentors were attuned to the atmosphere of the house and ran the Workshop beautifully in an interactive way so that the participants can feel at home with ease, and the chief goal of the event is met. The mentors inculcated positivity and confidence among the participant young minds in a very inspirational way of conducting the programme.

It is a generally-accepted norm that creative writing is an ‘inner’ thing, a human trait of very personal nature, not to be taught publicly. We, at Raghabpur campus, on behalf of the Bengali Department tried to break this norm and stepped outside the box, and organized a workshop like this not only to understand the psyche of the new-generation, but also to bring them into an interactive session face to face so that they can explore the world of literature with an organized intellection process and most importantly, make and choose their own process. Thus, they will be able to come out with their very own beautiful ideas and writing and express themselves in their own language in this brutal era when the social media is engulfing original idea and creating a vulgar copy of great minds.

And lastly, I, Rini Gangopadhyay, Assistant Professor of Bengali at Raghabpur Campus of St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous) Kolkata, addressed the house with my thanksgiving speech, where I thanked all the participants, the keynote speaker and all the mentors for their valuable time and effort, all of our colleagues at Raghabpur campus, the HoD of Bengali Department, Mr. Rajib Chowdhury, and last but not the least, our respected principal Reverent Dr. Dominic Savio S.J  and respected Father Johnson Padiyara, S.J., without whose constant support and timely permissions essential for organizing the Workshop of this stature, would have been an impossible task.

Thank you all.