Feedback of Gadhyasabha "La.Tha. Sarkhi Vat" - A Seminar on Prominent Gujarati writer Labhshankar Thakar

On 20^th September 2016, I got a wonderful chance to attend a seminar on the prominent Gujarati poet Labhshankar Thakar. It was organised by the Bhavnagar Gadhyasabha. It was the seventh event under the ‘Rajatparv’ of Gadhyasabha. There were many well-known figures of Gujarati Literature like Dr.Chandrakant Topiwala, Suman Shah, Vinod Joshi, Rajesh Pandya, Minal Dave, My Dear Jayu, Paresh Nayak and Prabodh Parikh, who talked about the works of Labhshankar Thakar.

The seminar “La. Tha. Sarkhi Vat” was organised in the old Court Hall of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. We were also fortunate to watch a documentary film on Labhshankar Thakar “Manas ni Vat”, directed by Prabodh Parikh and produced by Sahitya Akademi, Delhi.

Frankly, I didn’t have much idea about this seminar. The day before the event we had a talk on Film Appreciation by Prabodh Parikh, which lead me to join this event. Also I didn’t have much idea about the prominent poet La.Tha. , except a prose of him which I studied in Std 10^th. I am glad that I attended this seminar.

I would like to highlight some of the ideas which I liked a lot.

First speaker of the seminar was Chandrakant Topiwala. He spoke about Labhshankar Thakar. He said that La.Tha. was the Major Voice of literature and experimented on Meta-poetry (Poetry on poetry).  He also highlighted some lines of the poem which reflected the inscapes of La.Tha. One of the best thing what he said was “Chand todvano adhikari to j che, jo tame ena jankar ho.” Similar thing was also said by my sir Dr. Dilip Barad in class once, that to break the rules you have to first master the rules. He also referred to Julia Kristeva, to tell that how La.Tha. used to question the dimensions of language.

The documentary was amazing; you get clear glimpses of La.Tha. ,and his life. It took 2 and half years in preparing this film. The film started with superb lines,

     “A voice comes from behind

       It’s Darkness

       Imagine”

All the speakers of the seminar were good, but the best speech which has created a disturbance in my mind was by Paresh Nayak.

Why his speech made me disturbed?

 In my academics I am learning about absurd drama and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and La.Tha. , also wrote absurd drama. It is tragedy that I didn’t ever knew that there are Gujarati writers who wrote absurd drama. While studying existentialism, the prime idea of this philosophy is to recognize the absurd and embrace it. I was surprise to see that the same thing was also practiced by La.Tha. And thus he was self-critical. I am tempted to read plays and novels written by La.Tha.

The food and the timings of the seminar was well organised. The event ended with a play “Vruksh” written by La.Tha. , and performed by the students of the Gujarati Department, MKBU. It was very well performed.

Lastly I would like to Thank Mahendrasinh Parmar to invite us for this Programme and Dr.Dilip Barad to give us a chance to attend such good programme.

It was a great opportunity to listen to such great speakers. This memorable day I will cherish all my life.

Enjoyed a lot!!!!!