What good can come of deconstructing metrical schemes in Sanskrit poetry -- long and short syllables, fixed patterns, duration as a measure? Of course, you will finally become savvy about the sound structures in those Sanskrit mantras and poems. But your own poetry will gain in rhythm, and you will become conscious of syllables like never before. Push yourself! No pain - no gain.                                        

Language: English (and Sanskrit)

Duration: 60 mins, participants to be in their seats 15 mins prior

Note: Limited to 25 participants

Ticket Charge: Rs. 500/- per participant, non-refundable

About Mani Rao:

Mani Rao has nine books of poetry including New & Selected Poems (Poetrywala, India), Echolocation (Math Paper Press, Singapore) and Ghostmasters (Chameleon Press, Hong Kong). She has two books in translation— Bhagavad Gita as a Poem (Autumn Hill Books USA, Fingerprint India), and Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader (Aleph India).

Mani’s poems and essays are in journals including Poetry Magazine, Wasafiri, Meanjin, Colorado Review, Iowa Review, XCP, The Literary Review, Washington Square, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, and more. Translations of her poems have been published in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Italian and Latin. She has held writing residencies atOmi Ledig House (2018), Iowa IWP (2005 and 2009) and was the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence. Mani has an MFA in Creative Writing from UNLV and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Duke University. 

Her latest book Living Mantra— Mantra, Deity and Visionary Experience Today (Palgrave Macmillan USA) is the anthropology of mantra-experience.