While Spoken Word Poetry is still finding its feet in India, Poetry fused with Storytelling can seem a little alien? But if you were in the last batch of KIIT, you must have heard of Amandeep Singh and his penchant for slam-dunk storytelling. Known as that guy who hosted the KIIT Fest, he was the Deputy Secretary General of the KIIT International MUN and has hosted over 100 events for the institute.
He is now in Mumbai working as a software engineer in Accenture, but between you and me, he says that the job is just his back up. His real passion is storytelling. And for someone who has been performing something or the other on stage since he was in pre-school, can you expect otherwise? "I take everything that happens to me, search for a philosophy in it, and put it into my poetry," says the 22-year-old. The key, he says, is relatability. "When I add that factor, it moves on from being 'my story' and becomes 'our story'. So I put a piece of me in all my performances," he adds.
So what is the difference between Storytelling through Poetry and Spoken Word Poetry, we ask him. "While Spoken Word involves taking up a social issue and sharing your thoughts on it, Storytelling through poetry can be about anything — even fiction," he explains, showing that he has a handle on the intricacies of his art form. To drive that point a little deeper, he gives us the lowdown on other genres like Slam Poetry, "which is competitive in nature with certain rules"; Performance Poetry, "which is completely performance-based and involves gestures, annotation and more", Beat Poetry, which is akin to rapping and Theatrical Poetry, which uses theatre effects. Just wow! Despite there being so many forms Singh's heart settled on Storytelling through Poetry.
Well, his choice seems to be working for him because he has a whopping 23,000 plus likes on his eponymous Facebook page. "Recently, I hadn't uploaded a video in three weeks and many people started messaging me and asking for one," shares the lad from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. His last video Friendship at First Sign was quite the rage and had a lot of people sharing it like crazy.
What's cool about his performances is that they have an element of suspense — some unique aspect that has an otherwise fidgety audience hooked. And while the scene of these performance art genres is still in its infancy when compared to hubs like Mumbai, regular open mics and groups like the Bhubaneshwar Poetry Club give him a lot of hope. "It's very tough to foresee how this genre will shape up but it is already being said that in the next year, it will enjoy as much following as Standup Comedy does today," he shares. This prediction gives both Singh and us a lot of hope.
Speaking of which, Singh tells us he performs only for one of two reasons — to bring a smile to someone's face or to give hope. And when either or both happen, he considers his performance a success.
Check his work out on facebook.com/amandeep.khayal.p
