The 9th World Haiku Festival was held during 23-28 February 2008 at the Art of Living Ashram in Bangalore. The theme for the festival was “Ananda – The Joy of Haiku.” The proceedings bloomed with each day’s events unfolding moments of intense awakening in the participants. Like a river’s undercurrents, Ananda continues to reverberate through the chambers of our hearts even after the event has concluded.

I gather
one moon after
another
into my hands … 
the river keeps giving

During the inaugural function, WHC India honoured eight eminent haijin who had in their own way contributed for furtherance of haiku in India. They were Dwarakanath H. Kabadi, Jagdish Vyom, Angelee Deodhar, Mohammed Fakhruddin, Narayanan Raghunathan, Stanford M. Forrester, Norman Darlington and Susumu Takiguchi. Each was presented with a beautiful shawl in the Indian tradition and a wooden Ashoka pillar. Susumu Takiguchi, the founder President of World Haiku Club, gave a thought provoking keynote address at the inaugural session. (Excerpts from his speech are included elsewhere in this section.)

A festival is about interaction— about similarities and differences, new ideas, contrasting views. Imparting, absorbing, forming opinions and breaking prejudices! It’s about agreement and also argument but most importantly it’s about people who have cared to come together in full spirit and enthusiasm … with each individual making it a richer and a more varied experience for all of us!

The 9^th World Haiku Festival was the first of its kind in India, and the first for most of us haiku poets to meet and exchange and collaborate in such a grand manner. This festival would certainly have a great significance and impact on the Indian haiku scene, as this is a new form of expression that India is waking up to. 

Thanks to Susumu san the World Haiku Club India came into its existence on 14^th of November 2005. And within a year we had our first Meet of Indian haiku poets at Pune Okayama Friendship Garden, on a very humble scale. Riding on the success of our first meet, it was unanimously decided that we would host the next World Haiku Festival. An ambitious dream, no doubt! 

They say, a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or else, what's heaven for? 

Luckily for us, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji’s gracious offer of the venue and to look after our stay during the festival was truly a Godsend. You can imagine our joy when Sri Ratan Tata Trust granted funds that made this festival feasible and this was largely due to the efforts of A. Thiagarajan. We express our deep thanks to both our sponsors for their gracious help. I’m greatly indebted to my core-cell members A. Thiagarajan and Dr. Vidur Jyoti for their immense cooperation.

It was a three-day Festival, with sessions beginning from 8 in the morning and going on till 7.30 in the evening, showcasing haiku and it’s genres like tanka, haibun, and renku (collaborative linked poetry). Haiku in four of the Indian regional languages, Hindi, Marathi, Tamizh and Kannada were presented with clear indication of its growth in India today. Master workshops by renowned poets, the thought provoking paper presentations, the early morning ginko (nature) walk, the world haiku club award for the best haiku poem, the renku trip, all in all, the interaction and warmth exchanged between poets during the festival, was most rewarding. We were truly like one huge family of poets, coming together in a most beautiful way! 

Various cultural programmes like Kathak dance by Yogini Gandhi and her disciples, presentation on ‘Omkar Shakti’ by Dr Jayant Karandikar, bird-call imitations by Kiran Purandare and a special programme of rendition of ghazals of Ghalib – Intehaa -- by none other than the renowned film and stage personalities Tom Alter and Juhi Babbar, showcased the multi-faceted cultural bundle of energy that India is famous for. 

We had thirty Indian haiku poets—renowned, newcomers and enthusiasts—joining us along with six poets from out-side India, among them the Masters, Susumu Takiguchi, Stanford M. Forrester and Norman Darlington. 

The 9th World Haiku Festival 2008 in India has brought all of us much closer than we already were, a strong impression shared by all the participants. It is hoped that the success of this festival will take us further and deeper in our aspiration of binding as many Indian haiku poets as possible closer together and of bringing to all of them harmony, friendship and unity. We also aspire to forge close, strong and friendly relations with haiku poets and organizations across the world. It is our wish that WHC India will be able to play a small part in it and make a difference. 

thin mist
a frothy wave advances
the horizon.


(Mrs Kala Ramesh was the Director of WHF 2008)