This valentine's Day, let me confess something. I am in love- in love with writing, in love with words that try to stitch a meaning. Valentine's Day is for love and love comes in no shape, size, or form.

I am not a poet, though I try to play around with words and stitch something meaningful and I have been trying to stitch something meaningful since my childhood. Look Before You Leap was my first poem (if we can call it), which I wrote in 1996. I vividly remember one of the teachers, Mousumi Kalita, praising it. With newfound confidence, I began writing, though I never dared to publish anything, even in the school magazine.

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Time flew and with time my love for writing took a backseat before Zubeen Garg and (late) Paul Senchowa came up with a pathbreaking Assamese poetry audio cassette Nostalgia. The poems, the narration, the voice... everything had a mesmerising impact on me and my friends from the graduation days. In a nutshell, we all began writing poems and reciting.

The poet in me remained alive till 2010 and I wrote my last poem on June 27, 2010. So, when I received an invitation from Griffin Publication to attend an evening of poetry to celebrate Valentine's Day on February 13, 2022, the poet in me could not resist.

The thrilling idea of listening to poets from across the world, sharing their words and creating a mesmerising evening is too tempting to be denied. I proved to be correct after joining the event. Though I was sceptical initially, my initial fear died down as the evening progressed.

I was blessed to be in the company of several eminent poets and poetesses including Mary Lynn Luiz, Melissa, Jahnavi Gogoi, Sreekala, Vandana, Jun Bora, Jyoti Doley, Jyoti Dhankar, Adarsh Rathod (journalist), Sujata Paul, Nirupama, Prajakta, Kamal, Jinisha, Sejal, Anupam, Sandeep Gupta, Abraham, and Kishan Dahal.

One can love nature, one can be in love with God, or one can simply love another person- the poetry evening touched on these various aspects of love.

It proved to be a wonderful platform for non-poets like me to express ourselves, our thoughts, and our feelings. The idea behind organising such events is that Griffin Publication aims at publishing quality work and works towards the promotion of language and literature.

After listening to their narrations and verses, I have realised one thing- I am anything but not a poet.

The best part of the event was that it was multilingual.

The poetry session event was also graced by the team of Sattvika -Shri Hari Ram Foundation- an organisation formed in 2021 with a vision of a healthy and educated India.

They are also working in the field of thalassemia awareness in society.