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00:00 I am Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from the ear-opener issue of Outlook titled Poetry as Evidence.
00:07 Poetry must be brought before general public. Poetry offers that scope that we get affected and we feel.
00:14 Poetry expands the scope of storytelling. It is evidence of others' lives, of our times.
00:21 We remain grateful to Amar Kanwar who worked with us and edited this issue,
00:25 and to everyone who gave us their poems and images, to the reporters who gathered the poems,
00:31 to the designers and researchers who made it all possible.
00:35 I am Hindustani Musliman by Hussain Haidri from Madhya Pradesh,
00:40 translated from Urdu by Deepika Mukherjee and Udit Mehrotra.
00:45 On an evening stroll down my street, the azaan echoes, stops my feet, reminds me it is time to pray.
00:53 But I start musing on that day. Bhai, what kind of Muslim am I?
00:58 Am I Sunni or I am Shia? Am I Khoja or I am Bohri?
01:03 From the village or the city, am I a rebel or a mystic? Am I devout or sophistic?
01:10 Bhai, what kind of Muslim am I? Do I prostrate in submission or am headed to perdition?
01:17 Is my cap my identity or the beard shaved off completely?
01:22 Recite Quranic verse, I could. Or hum the songs of Bollywood.
01:28 Do I chant Allah every day or fight the sheikhs in every way?
01:33 What kind of Muslim am I, Bhai? I know I am an Indian Muslim.
01:39 For this and more, read the year opener issue of Outlook.
01:43 Outlook.