Limericks, the short, pithy and witty form of poetry is in vogue nowadays, catapulted further by the social media boom. On the second day of the eleventh edition of the Odisha Literary Fest 2023 at Mayfair Convention in Bhubaneswar, the audience were acquainted with this fun poetry-writing style by writer and researcher Aparna Ray and cartoonist and poet Hpraz Srivastava. The session titled Short and Stylish: Loving your Limericks, was chaired by Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, economist and author and the trio discussed the art of writing limericks and how it has evolved to become more Indianised over the years.

Limericks competition
This entertaining session was followed by a limerick-writing competition between six students from three Bhubaneswar schools, namely, Mothers Public School, SAI International School and KiiT International School, which was judged by the panellists. Trisha Rath, Class XI, KIIT International School won the competition, while Tarun Tapan Bhuyan, Class X, SAI International School emerged as the runner-up. The winner and the runner-up were felicitated and given cash rewards of Rs 21,000 and Rs 15,000, respectively, from The New Indian Express.

More about the session
Rhyme is an integral part of writing limericks, and, "The art of rhyming is old, it can be found in the works of Jayadeva and the Gita Govinda," opines Debroy, who has written The Book of Limericks, while his other works have always been rooted in the Indian classics. However, he adds that limericks are very much English in nature, and don't come intrinsically to the Indian audience as a form of poetry.

Stating that Debroy found X, formerly known as Twitter, an apt platform to share limericks, he mentioned that people responded to limericks in other forms of poetry. The writers concluded that limericks generally continue to be used by those who are highly proficient in English.

The session also discussed the topics explored through this poetry form. Ribaldry and biting sarcasm are often a part of it, shared Aparna Ray. The panellists stated that while a limerick could be written on any topic, political limericks are becoming popular with the changing times, they opined. Hpraz Srivastava established this point further by reading a limerick on Chandrayaan.

The three panellists read out a few limericks they penned throughout the discussions, which had the audience in splits.