“And now I write poems with spaces between them. Spaces, which I never intend to fill.”

In the dimly lit Bose Auditorium, poetry lovers of several colleges assembled to listen to Mildly Offensive Content, a Delhi based slam poetry group of five girls. Organised by Kshitij-The Literary Magazine, the event was conducted in the cool, dusky afternoon of Day 1 at Thomso. Slam poetry is a form of contemporary art that uses various oratory techniques to assist the audience in the visualisation of the images presented.

Seemingly insignificant memories of childhood to the fallacy of a relationship, they enunciated their views on wonderful range of topics. Politics played its own painted pomp, with a daring creation on the Gujarat riots and the ‘man with a orange heart’ who talks about progress and development. One of the beautiful poets went on to speak of the absurdity of a job interview, resonating soundly with the audience. Vivid and personal imagery was prevalent in all of the pieces, and while we yearned for more, the show sadly came to an end. The candid verses combined with the mesmerising delivery made for a mildly offensive, yet impressive content indeed.

The audience of IITR, maybe due to the ambience created inside the Bose Auditorium or simply because of the nature of the poetry, showed a unique maturity. With clicks and snaps to the lines that hit them, the crowd encouraged the poets as well as made the atmosphere warmer. “Poetry, and that too of this level was quite unexpected out here” one of the listeners, Riddhi, from Shivaji College, DU, remarked.
The whole event was very well organised by the Co-ordinators, Abhishek Jha and Bhavnoor Singh, and all the co-coordinators and volunteers.