Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Book Review: Thoughts


Author: D Samarender Reddy
Format: Paperback 
Language: English 
Pages: 108
Price: Rs. 200
Publishers: Cyberwit.net
ISBN Number: 978-81-8253-249-6














about the book:


“Thoughts” by D  Samarender Reddy- is rather a reflective collage than a book. I should not say, it is containing a preacher’s discourse- but the verses are often bordering on morality and evoking spiritual questions- that will make the reader ponder more than usual. It is a collage of painted feelings, comprising of small realizations and observable notions like:
“Our knowledge is built,
On the scaffold of doubt;”
The above lines are from the poem Doubt- a small piece but comprising of greater philosophy. I would like to draw the reader’s interest upon how the idea of doubt percolates through the poem. The poem consists of small phrases all contributing to the central theme- in such a way that they often do away with possible punctuation marks. It is either a flow of imagination or something aligned to the concept of stream of consciousness. For doubts give birth to tears of uncertainty and misunderstanding are nothing but, its common sister.

There is one poem that strikes me more than anything else- Pride and Humility. For ever since I have read it, the lines are questioning my mind. How do you connect pride with humility? The words don’t really fall into place. They are bound to contradict no matter in which way you are using them. But the poet sums all arising ambiguities- with an acceptance of defeat- stating the conflict is ever existent- thus they should be together inside the same arena!

The same can be said about No Monopoly. The poet seems to make an effect to decipher the absolute meaning of Truth. In a short and subtle manner- he achieves at describing Truth as the power of knowledge, as it seems, and that it can’t be limited to a single unit-  whether an individual, or race. The idea seems far more superior, thus it has the power to transcend over political boundaries, ethnic beliefs and trapped within barbed wires.

As writers or amateur scribbling enthusiasts, whenever we find it difficult to make our taunt pen move over a horribly white piece of paper- perhaps we tend to follow the thought surviving in tact within the lines of Cajoling a Friend to Write. The poems like Talking of Death or even Brush with Death- are easy flow over a stinging word.

Reddy makes an effort to bring out human experiences with a touch of the old world of language. Sometimes it seems a man is writing down over parchments and letting them flow with the passing wind and at times it is like a soothing whisper which only the mind is capable of listening to.




about the author:



D Samarender Reddy did his undergraduation in medicine (MBBS) from Gandhi Medical College, Hyderabad, and MA (Economics) from the Johns Hopkins University, USA. He has earlier worked as a copywriter and programmer and is currently working as an editor with a medical publisher in Hyderabad. His earlier publications include two books of poetry and History of Medicine. His poems have also featured in several magazines and in an anthology Mosaic. His passion is philosophy, both Eastern and Western.



further details:


http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/317

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Book Review: Easterlies




Author: Sonnet Mondal
Format: Paperback 
Language: English 
Pages: 245
Price: Rs. 350
Publishers: Cyberwit.net
ISBN Number: 978-81-8253-245-8








about the book:


If you are to put the best composition of a man, a poet by his very name- you are likely to feel the flavour of the seasons brushing across your face. Easterlies, is thus rightly titled, as it is worthy to be called a bouquet of verses- some of it might have been published earlier and some perhaps had till now stayed in hurried notebooks of a man of many wonders. Sensibility and practical observations fuse together as you pour through the pages. To begin with I liked the style of getting a new poem to read from a fresh page. Sonnet Mondal is pragmatically drawing parallels between the illusive mind and the one his vision captures with the passing days. Therefore to understand what lies in between his measured words- you need a fresh mind and inner peace- something you will be able to get only when you see a tale ending at the bottom of a page and giving way to the new one from the fresh. 
Ashes won’t claim Honour- and rightly said so; it is your deeds and your smile, more so laughter, to build up that pyre on which you are rested. The poet seem to speak in favour of the ashes-
“They even need air,
To fly and yet
Fly so irrelevantly’.
A sense of helplessness echoes through much of the volume of verses I have in my hand. For instance, the lines from the poem- “Howling Night”-
“My limbs tied up with
Moving ropes over the pulley of life”-
It informs you that you can do hardly anything to the course you are set since the day of your birth. Similarly- the poem in the adjacent page- “Blacksmith and his diamonds” is tinged with magic realism. Never so poignant pleasure in creation has got protected in very few words as this: “He smiles/ his toil vanishes!”- it is as if the plight of hard labour gets a new meaning in the revelation of a treasure that the finder can’t even keep for long. (Reminds me of the argument- “God lies not outside, but inside our very soul”.) Those diamonds would adorn the illiterates- and the seeker is least bothered about it – to his the initial thrill is enough to surplus the material gains. “The lamenting soldier” on the other hand, is ached out of pathos of a soldier who is yet to forget the true meaning of humanism.
Easterlies give you a brazen look of life but with words to weave a mystic coat over the harshness it keeps referring to from time to time. It is a face within a face or an Escher mirage with stairs pouring in and out of the house of mind.



about the author:  
Born and brought up at the industrial city of Asansol of West Bengal in India Sonnet’s childhood was marked by visiting several places with his parents. His father Mr. Kajal Mondal is a banker and mother Mrs. Sima Mondal is a housewife. His schooling was carried out at the St. Michael’s school, Durgapur till class ten and he completed class eleven and twelve from the Hemsheela Model school of Durgapur in India. However he used to pass his holidays in his maternal house in a village named Jahidpur. Jahidpur is a village surrounded by dense ‘Sal’ forests on all sides segregating it from the busy city life and pollution. The green flora and fauna, the dense forests and wide spreading fields of paddy and rice in Jahidpur were surely some inspirations that later got reflected in his poems. He also passed much of his initial days of childhood in the coal belt area of Sripur and destiny later turned him towards Mining engineering. He was never too fascinated by his poetic name and took least interest in the genre of poetry. further details:http://www.cyberwit.net/publications/315