From Page to Stage: Journalist-turned-poet Garima Mishra’s initiative, KavitaKAFE, is turning Pune into a hub of lyrical expression and community healing

Garima Mishra’s bond with the Hindi language traces back to her childhood—long before she picked up a journalist’s pen. Growing up in a North Indian home where Hindi flowed like an everyday melody, she imbibed its rhythm and soul early on. In school, she was admired by her Hindi teachers not only for her marks but for her sensitivity to words. While others saw essays as assignments, Garima found beauty in language that carried emotional truth. She loved bhajans and songs whose lyrics linger long after the tune fades. On stage, she thrived—performing in Hindi plays, reciting poems, and winning debates that celebrated expression.

Yet professional life led her into English journalism. For nearly two decades as a senior journalist with The Indian Express, Garima reported on ground realities, culture, and social change with integrity. Her empathetic storytelling earned her the Express Excellence Award in 2015. Still, her first love—Hindi—remained quietly alive.

That moment came in October 2024 when she founded कविताKAFE (KavitaKAFE) in Pune. What began as a heartfelt initiative soon grew into a vibrant cultural movement. Garima envisioned it as a space where Hindi poetry would breathe, dance, and connect through people—no longer confined to classrooms or anthologies. Her aim was simple yet profound: to bring poetry back into everyday life as conversation, therapy, and shared emotion.

Journalist-turned-poet Garima Mishra’s initiative, KavitaKAFE, is turning Pune into a hub of lyrical expression and community healing

Founding Vision and Community Space From the very inception of KavitaKAFE, Monalisa Kalagram has stood by its founding vision—to make Hindi poetry an expressive, living art form and a medium for emotional, social, and cultural connection. Under Garima’s leadership, the platform has reimagined how poetry can bring people together, extending its reach from mainstream venues to underserved communities. Monalisa Kalagram, Pune’s vibrant community arts space, has been an integral part of this journey, offering not just a venue but a shared belief in creating spaces for authentic creative expression. Its founder, Lisa Pingale, shares, “KavitaKAFE’s poetry gatherings add a quiet charm and depth to the space, creating a platform for expression, connection, and creativity.”

Over the past year, KavitaKAFE’s sessions at Monalisa Kalagram have explored many shades of human experience—Aarambh marked a poetic revival, Baatcheet celebrated human connection, Kavya-Katha blended poetry with storytelling, and Suno-Sunao opened the mic to new voices. The gatherings bring together engineers, IT professionals, doctors, theatre artists, and writers across generations.

Looking ahead, the platform envisions merging poetry with dance, music, books, and visual art to create immersive community experiences. On November 2, KavitaKAFE returns to Monalisa Kalagram with Udaan (उड़ान)—an open mic that continues their shared mission of keeping Hindi poetry expressive and alive.

Garima acknowledges her core team: her husband Rakesh and daughter Rashi, along with Fahim Mulla (photography/videography) and Anupam Banerjee (sound), calling them “the quiet anchors behind this growing movement.”

Healing Verses: Poetry as TherapyIn March 2025, Garima expanded KavitaKAFE’s purpose through Healing Verses, an outreach program using poetry and music as therapy. It reaches the elderly at Vrindavan Old-Age Home, cancer patients at Cipla Palliative Care, visually impaired students at Poona Blind School, geriatric patients at Aaji Care, and disabled soldiers at QMTI. Sessions begin softly—with words, music, and silence—and end in shared catharsis. Participants describe feeling heard, comforted, and renewed. For Garima, “poetry isn’t just art; it’s empathy articulated.”

A Poet at Heart Garima’s poems have been aired on Canadian radio CIUT.FM and published by Norway-based bilingual online magazine Ghudsavar, reflecting her international reach. She recently judged a poetry competition organised by All India Radio’s Akashvani as part of Hindi Diwas Pakhwada Samaroh. She has also performed her poetry at several open mics in Pune. She has opened the shows of Sufi and Qawwali singer Aanchal Shrivastava twice and presented devotional poems during Navratri at Anandmayee Ashram. Her writing moves between the intimate and universal—self-reflection, rural life, nature, longing, womanhood, relationships, faith, and time—delivered with tender yet powerful insight. She is currently working on her debut Hindi poetry book.

Garima Mishra’s bond with the Hindi language traces back to her childhood—long before she picked up a journalist’s pen.

Recognition and LegacyIn March 2025, she was honoured with the Pride of Maharashtra Award for her contributions to arts and society, recognising not just her journalistic legacy but her cultural leadership.

While deeply committed to Hindi, Garima maintains a strong connection with English. Alongside KavitaKAFE, she works as a consulting writer-editor for the NGO Mann Deshi Foundation and occasionally writes blogs on varied topics and poetry in English on Medium. Remarkably, a short story by Garima was published by the US-based magazine Down in the Dirt, from Scars Publications, demonstrating her ability to engage readers in both languages.

Today, Garima Mishra stands at an inspiring crossroads where journalism meets art, and language meets emotion. Through KavitaKAFE, she is proving that Hindi, with its warmth and lyrical power, is not a relic of the past but the heartbeat of contemporary expression. One verse at a time, she brings people closer—to poetry, to each other, and to themselves.