"Friends are the angels that lift us up, when our wings have forgotten how to fly,” said Rati Wadia, former principal of Queen Mary School, referring to the title of the program, "Angels in Disguise.” Friendship was the theme of the 11th 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Bombay poetry festival held online between October 6 and 9, 2022. Hosted by Pooja Jaisingh, founder of Fun Ki Pathshaala, in association with Kitab Khana and curated by poet Menka Shivdasani, a highlight of the event was the children’s program in which schoolchildren presented their original poems. This year’s theme was inspired by the enduring bond between Wadia and Dinoo Damania (née Dubash), a friendship that began in early childhood and continues to this day when they are well into their 80s, which was the subject of an article "We still eat dinner together every single evening” written by columnist and author Meher Marfatia in mid-day of February 6, 2022.
Clockwise from above: Participants at poetry fest;
Menka Shivdasani, Katie Bagli, Rati Wadia and Pooja Jaisingh
The event featured original poetry, music, drama and dance presentations by students of the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly (DPYA) High School, The J. B. Petit High School for Girls, The J. B. Vachha High School for Parsi Girls, The Universal School in Tardeo, R. S. Deokar English Medium School in Thane West, Powai English High School and Fun Ki Pathshaala.
There were musical performances as well as a play titled A Friendship of a Strange Kind, written, produced and directed by children’s author Katie Bagli enacted by children of the Fun Ki Pathshaala. Bagli is part of the Jane Goodall Institute, India team of Roots and Shoots. She was inspired to write this play due to the recently launched pilot project "Oceans are US.” The play was to encourage youth to build a connection with our magnificent oceans and to motivate them into taking action that would prevent pollution in the oceans and control climate change.
Nilesh Makwana, author of Terminal 4 — An Entrepreneur’s Journey from Bicycle to Business Class, and founder of the award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner tech firm Illuminance Solutions in Australia, was chief guest at the festival. He spoke of his own academic failures as a student, pointing out that success depends not just on rote learning and marks alone but also determination, hard work and refusing to quit. Sherene Vakil