1.

A Review of Book of Love

Book of Love. Nikesh Murali. Sao Paulo: Ibex Press, pp100, 2006, Aus$15.00 


Nikesh Murali´s “Book of Love” demonstrates to us that his natural gift for poetry has been nurtured and enhanced in the last few years. Previous work by the author delighted us the same way as soft clouds do on a warm summer day; and at the same time, gave us joys of poetical spirit, as Degas painting does while we stare at its perfect serenity, full of rhythm and colour.

Inspiration, induced by falling in true love, has given Murali the eye of a mature artist. What, in the near past, was still blossoming, has fully bloomed now. One can notice the enchanting display of movement, passion and harmonious beauty in his words.

Murali’s lines in Chapter 8

The day I saw you,

Your face that makes the stars in the sky jealous
And twinkle in the first hours of the night 
Like celestial dancers etched on the temple walls.
Your face like a wild flower
That desires the approval of my touch
And blooms secretly at dusk.

The day I saw you,
I was reborn.

may be compared to one of the most exquisite Spanish poets of love, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer :

Today Earth and sky smile at me
Today the sun reaches the bottom of my soul
Today I saw her… I saw her and she stared at me...
Today I believe in God!

In Chapter 2 of the book, Murali writes

Maybe I should dip my brush in blue 
And paint the universe with its infinite stars
Or maybe the beach where the sea shatters its pride on rocks
With a sky that mirrors its turbulence.

These lines remind me of Pablo Neruda´s compositions, where he constructs perfect metaphors joining love expressions and admiration with the spectacle of Nature. Like him, Murali has the rare ability that only Masters have: to perceive the connection among human beauty, human love and natural environment.

Beauty is a rare value, found in this outrageous world, only by refined souls like Murali´s.

2.

A Critique on Roamings 

Roamings. Ram Mehta. Canada: Luna Kiran Joshi, 2004. pp60. Not for sale 


Poetry is like a wave of understanding among people, a language from the origin of species, where insight and intuition allow us to comprehend the ecstasies of love, and at the same time, the sorrow of poverty in its most cruel face. We can read majestic pieces in this book written by the wise hand of Ram Mehta. 

Roamings is a book created from the heart and it reaches high levels of perception. The author invites us to share an enjoyable journey that takes us through love, romance, social issues and philosophical reflections. Diversity appears to confront, in all its multicolored hues, the astonished reader, who shivers and trembles, moved by innumerable kinds of emotions the book generates. 

Ram Mehta is not new to the world of poetry. He has experimented for years with odes, lyrics, other poetical forms, Shakespearean and other sonnets. He delights our most exigent taste with this new expression of his rare talent.

The book has four separate groups of poems - romantic, sociological, philosophical and personal. He invades our emotions of love, when he writes:

“Your eyes green and deep,
Deeper than the depth,
Stilled waters at even
Those eyes, break of the day”

Here we may admire his ability to produce the internal rhythm while making alliterations and onomatopoeias with words. In the sociological poems we read profound lines like these:

“I see the broken hearth - moral breakdown,
Cold kitchens, cold bedrooms”

And he submerges our attention in post modern troubles while he writes:
“Forced to walk fast, pressed, depressed”

Ram Mehta delights our fantasy and educates our sensitivity. He teaches us to feel free to fly over fear, pain, pleasure and passion. He fabricates a pair of silvery wings on the back of the readers and shows us how to live in this outrageous era, from a distant nest over a higher tree. The dazzle of his talent indicates the route and he invites us to be his “co-walkers”. He plays with metaphors to captivate the rare instant of eternity which lives beyond poetry and even literature. His position is that of an artist; his sight that of the hunter of souls. He is like the sycamore, inviting us to:

”Socialize and to poetize”.

A fine music resides in his poetic style, full of aesthetical irony.

Yes, we have understood your message, Ram, and we would like to be your co-walkers in these magical roamings towards the mysterious dark side of reality, where love shines like a silvery moon, while the wolves always try to kill masked as human beings.

Welcome to Mehtaland! Fix your belts and enjoy the journey.