Tihar women's poems find takers

A collection of poems from the incarcerated women of Tihar, Tinka-Tinka Tihar has made an entry into the Limca Book of Records for its “uniqueness”.

Written by journalist and media trainer Vartika Nanda and former Director General of Delhi’s Tihar Jail Vimla Mehra this book has always been in debates right from the days of its publication for its unconventional take on the plight of women and their rights. The book has been published in Hindi and English by Rajkamal Prakashan.

Nanda said she got a certificate from Limca Book of Records on April 17, which happened to be her birthday.

Tinka-Tinka Tihar was the first effort of its kind world-over that women inmates of Tihar’s jail no. 6 were motivated for writing poems. Later, it appeared as compiled works of four women inmates Rama Chauhan, Seema Raghuvanshi, Riya Sharma and Aarti.
 
“The book is an attempt to look into the world of silence,” Nanda told Deccan Herald. She said the poems written by inmates bring out stories of pain and trauma faced by women in our society as far as human rights, legal hindrances, society and laws are concerned.

The photographs featured in this book were framed by the inmates themselves, for which they had a special order. “In fact, the pages have been pieced together to each other and only after separating them, appear the poems,” Nanda said.

She said the book went through many experiments and theme songs were prepared thereafter.

Songs for inmates
The poem collective draws attention towards crime against women through different tools of mass communication and media. The song “Tinka Tinka Tihar” written by both the writers became one of the marks of Tihar Jail. Some of the selected male and female inmates gave their voice for this song.

Poetry on the wall
The longest wall painting of the country is also credited to Tihar jail as the best poem of this book ‘Chardiwari’ has been painted as the wall-painting which is also longest in the country.   

Tinka-Tinka Tihar was launched in September 2013.  The certificate issued by Limca Book of Record says that this has been seen as a national record for its uniqueness.

Vartika Nanda is a permanent faculty member with the Department of Journalism at Lady Shri Ram College. Vimla Mehra also passed out from LSR few years ago.