Book Reviews

REVIEWS

Name of the Book: DOWN TO THE EARTH.

An anthology of post modern Telugu poetry. Free Verse Front: Hyderabad­-India. Compiled and edited by Seelavi Kundurty Satya Murty.

Price: Rs.60/- in India. $ in U.S.A. £ 4 - in U.K.

This book, attractive with its decolam cover depicting the beautiful door carving of a Telugu House, and containing a good collection of poems, translation of post Modern Telugu poems is a beautiful achieve­ment with Foreword by Dr. Chekuri Rama Rau.

One can’t but be surprised at the high quality of style and expression presented by the translators. The book is a sophisticated window through which one can see the different scenes of India, the huts, the villages, the toiling poor, the oppressed, the down­trodden, the struggling masses, the hills, the lakes, the rivers, the revolutionary crying for justice, the agony, the anger, all aspirations­ - all life.

Though the theme and the mood change from poem to poem, pathos and the trend of reformation are noticed in majority of the poems.

“Masters,
We only have two hands
to pack your houses with possessions” .
(A Pair of Hands)
“We turned ourselves into candles
to light up your mansions”.
(Struggle to live)

Especially pathetic is “Beware The naked parade” while there are poems like “Meghya” which have the seeds of revolution. The cry for justice and the need for the virtue of humanity is a dominant note in many of the poems.

Impressive lines and unique ideas arrest our attention.

“Can tears help light a lamp?”
“You’re conversing with fire”.
(computer pictures)
“He extends into all for a thousand miles”
(Freedom Fighter)
“I cannot love the noon
            with all its brilliance.
            Even if consumed by flames
            I will embrace only the sun”.

Bringing the handicapped into poetry is a novel idea “Woodenleg” “The Braille Way”.

The Poem “No Hands to Flap” makes for interesting reading though touching.

            “Before I lost my leg
            in the city’s rush,
            some forest had lost a tree.”

Absorbing and charmingly translated are the poems “The Hill that melted away”, “Jungle” “The Lake”, “The Violet Boar” “The River” and many others.

On the whole the book is a rare con­tribution introducing the modern Telugu po­etry to the world and revealing a fund of talent among the Indian writers in English. The compiler and editor of this book and the publishing House deserve to be congratu­lated.

A. SATYAVATHY.

Name of the Book: ‘The Stone man’ And Other Poems. Author: Niranjan Mishra. Price: Paper Rs. 20/-, $6/-, Deluxe Rs. 40/- Address for correspondence: M. Mishra, 4R/5, Principal’s Colony, At/Po Parlakhemundi, Dist Gajapati, Orissa, Pin ­761 200, India.

The present book under review is a collection of poems by Niranjana Mishra, written and published in various professional Journals and News Papers. In the Epilogue, the author says that his purpose in writing poems is to communicate a peculiar feeling or an experience in Indian English. For him, Poetry is a soul stirring experience and he claims that there is no place for obscurity in his poems. All the themes selected by the poet prove this point. They cover a wide range of subjects which we encounter in our daily lives.

The poem “The Stone Man”, which also happens to be the title of the book, is about an unidentified person, who killed eleven people living in Calcutta’s slums. The killer’s Modus Operandi was to smash the head of the innocent victim with a stone. Our heart flows with sympathy when we read these lines---

            City’s deserted children
            gone thus to oblivion
            coming to this earth
            on an adhoc basis
            terminated thus
            without a prior notice
            see, these tiny creatures
            languishing
            on this Calcutta pavement.

The poet wrote the poem ‘C.I.E.F.L lessons in a satiric spirit. In this poem, the poet criticises dull and boring lessons. In the 3rd Stanza he says humourously -­

            “Separating language from literature
            is like separating
            the Prince of Denmark
            From Hamlet”.

In ‘Hair Cutting’ he pays rich tributes to Gandhiji in the following lines -­

            “I often imagine
            you were sent by Heaven
            only on deputation
            to the world of erring mortals
            for this arduous act of
            hair-cutting for making
            the rulers bald headed
            by the twin scissors
            of Truth and Non-Violence”.

The variegated subjects like Love, War, God, Politics and Elections are often touched with sentiment, feeling, pathos, satire and they sometimes reflect the mood of the poet himself. The poem ‘Poll­ing Booth’ is a light satire aimed at the present day politics. ‘Star TV’ is another criticism levelled against the latest TV boom which is spoiling the youth of our country. A house wife writes to the Editor of a Magazine ex­pressing her anguish and problems she faces with her children and husband at home. I think any house wife will agree with her when she reads the lines --­

            ‘My husband is getting angry If I say
            Dinner is getting cold nobody listens
            Sir, children should not know
            Kissing in so early age’.

The book delights the reader. It leaves an ever-lasting impression on our minds since some of the poems are inspiring and thought-provoking.

Y. SATYA SREE.