Reviewed by- Varsha Singh
“You only live twice:/ Once
when you're born/And once when you look death in the face.”
― Ian Fleming, You Only
Live Twice
But a poet like Jaydeep
Sarangi, lives as many time he pens down a piece of poetry. He does not ink
those ideas on paper rather he immerses in his verses which hail from plethora
of experiences, all good, bad, beautiful, painful etc. His poems give a sense
of calmness to the horrified minds, sense of well-being to the distracted souls
and sense of love for humanity to those who keep away from it; “A Door Somewhere?” by Jaydeep Sarangi is
such a work.
A bunch of 47 poems of
this collection makes one go astray where all the answers, which we question
ourselves on daily basis, reside, in a personal way.
The collection begins
with a poem, where the poet opens his heart with a serene prayer, a beautiful
offering towards his mother.
Prayer
“She wonders/why do I
return to her each day./In homely quit, beside the lantern./She can listen to
my heart beats,/The rise and fall/I follow each time./My nervous eyes hold
winter breath./My temple has one deity -/My mother.”
As William Shakespeare through
his famous poem “All the World’s a Stage” described the seven stages of man,
similarly Jaydeep Sarangi took hold of a baby growing in a poet, through different
stages of life, alike a poem with a beginning, middle and an end.
Baby Growing In A Poet
“Death has different
meanings for us/at different stages of life/So does poetry./Its images are
collage/Of thoughtful ideas wedded into
a door,/Symbols are its bricks and stones/Of a home of thoughts,/Where nerves
make a man grow/Like a poem/Beginning, middle and an end…”
“Nothing is ever really
lost to us as long as we remember it.”
― L.M. Montgomery, The
Story Girl
For Sarangi,
remembrance is of great importance, from where one may peep into the history
which mostly seems lost. His fondness about history, about the small things of
past is visible in the poem “Small Things In Life”
“My thoughts are
now/Waiting. Small things are/Recalled and stored/In raindrops and wind
blowing./My vegetable dreams/Usher monsoon of hope/When one comes to the end of
things…”
Another piece, which
breaks the silence of history, is “The Sun Temple”
“Relics of past unnerve
me/Where the language of stone/Dismisses the language of man…”
“A Door Somewhere?” the
title poem talks about the mystery of history as well.
“Each time I read
history/I find a door somewhere./Past talking to present/Something else is yet
to happen, only where and what?...”
There are plenty of
poems written about words, such as Anne Sexton, Edward Thomas and now Jaydeep
Sarangi. Each of them has a unique description about ‘words’.
According to Sexton, “Be
careful of words,/even the miraculous ones./For the miraculous we do our best,/sometimes
they swarm like insects/and leave not a sting but a kiss.” In the words of Thomas,
“Out of us all/That make rhymes,/Will you choose/Sometimes –/As the winds use/A
crack in the wall/Or a drain,/Their joy or their pain/To whistle through –/Choose
me,/You English words?...”
Sarangi has a unique
sensibility for ‘words’. He says,
“His words are
echo,/Asking a shadow to dance in tune/Tied side by side/On printed pages./A
world is everywhere./Images roll like sweet stitches/Left to right./Words are
arms in a congress of minds,/Kites in the sky.”
Another powerful poem
of this collection is “Caged Bard”, dedicated to a rickshaw puller named
Manoranjan Byapari, who writes Bangla novels, stories and autobiography.
“Long
struggles/Demystified Byapari of false honours/of the caste-ridden society/He
discovers beauty in working class,/Cooperation among have-nots,/Humanism in
rebels,/Simplicity of outcastes./Byapari drinks them all…”
“For A Postman” is another
strong piece in the list, which envelops the story of an unsung hero, lost in
present era of technology.
“How can I write to
others without a postman/Serving for seasons/Carrying my smiles and sorrows/In
both hands./I smell your garden in spring/When you cannot visit me… The postman
goes with a bang/A character,/An unsung hero/A link between the continents of
the mind;/For me.”
According to Tamaso
Lonsdale, a writer and editor from Australia, “Jaydeep Sarangi’s poems offer a
ray of hope to those oppressed by the harshness of life’s reality. They have an
enigmatic and at times ethereal quality drifting into the mystical.”
Amusing is the way,
very Indian is the taste and thought provoking is the idea, poems of the
collection, “A Door Somewhere?” by Jaydeep
Sarangi are real treat for the readers, with oodles of alluring metaphors and
lavish adjectives along with the depth of reality and intense interpretations.
About
the Poet
Widely anthologized and
reviewed as a poet, Jaydeep Sarangi writes in his own style. His lyrical
moments embrace life’s profound solitude and his ideas flood from his
engagements and commitments to life around him. His poetic flight moves through
emotional snapshots to reach his inner serenity what Keki Daruwalla, one of the
doyens of Indian English Literature finds his poems, “a fresh paint to everyday
living.” He can be reached at jaydeepsarangi@gmail.com
About
the book
Author-
Jaydeep Sarangi
Genre-
Poetry
Publisher-
Cyber Wit
Price-
INR 200 /-
