Sky Is the Limit: The Poetry of Hope and Awareness : PREVIEW by M.A. Rathore

 

PREVIEW

Sky Is the Limit: The Poetry of Hope and Awareness

'The Sky is Limit' by Rajni Chhabra is a landmark Anthology of Rajasthani Poems, translated by her into English, tinged with the placid beauty of diction and wordsmithery. The book is rounded out by many budding as well as the famous signatures of Rajasthani Poetry.

Many people feel a strong urge to write and a considerable proportion of them have a desire to express their thoughts and feelings through the powerful, often emotive medium of poetry. The poetry she published in the past couple of years is pleasingly diverse, recognizable and has a unifying style. The poems in this new book engage in various formal and thematic experiments and yet the works embody the same spirit and sing with the same voice.

She tends to reach peak intensity in larger works that afford her the space to stretch out, gather momentum and amplify resonance. In an era when there is a great temptation to offer consoling sentiments, she dares to diffuse the taste of Rajasthani literature into its English translation.  

The beautifully crafted poems seem like mini-histories, intricate narratives. The overflow with richness and opportunities for interpretation shifts between Rajasthani and English.

This collection practically embodies the phrase 'breath of fresh air.' It comes in the widespread enthusiasm after Corona. Her lines are clear and conversational, and happen to detect an immediate and uncanny resemblance to a great poet. Before proceeding ahead it is worth mentioning that English is the target language and it is not easy to dub each word into another language because the meanings and phrases are different in the two languages yet the poetess has employed her talent and has come up with great success.

 Abhilasha Pareek, in her poem, Summer Vacations recalls the days spent with maternal grandma and when summer days were considered a time of unbound joys; relishing all that they could get under her blessing. In the countryside, it was all managed for the grandchildren to make available all the eatables so that children might enjoy their merry time. Due to the hot weather, it was indispensable to sprinkle water in the evening before going to bed to quench fiery flames all around; though water scarcity is felt merely a mirage to the forlorn earth; sweating whole of the villagers even if some of have ACs. She states:

Sprinkling water on the hot terrace

Cooling down beddings

Sound of the flash of light

Beholding stars in the midnight

Sound of barking of dogs

Fresh morning breeze and wee hours

Where have these vanished?

 In the poem of Anita Vipula, we find a voice struggling for her identity as a human being. Though the woman is considered a toy to play with and with her emotions always; making her a pet or at times, telling that she is a goddess, but still she has not been given the right place of being a real human being. Even society teaches her to be submissive rather than putting a question against the rules of society. Here the revolutionary spirit in the poetess wages a war against society and roars thus:

Society has changed a lot

But, can I survive in it?

Can enjoy my real life

Can breathe heartily

Today, I have assumed

My responsibility

I know my potentialities

I am not a burden on anyone

Listen!

I am not a plaything.

Poetess, Anju's refreshing poetry brings out the essence of poetry. She describes her mother that she seems to be smiling always though she is amid the hard labour of farm activities. With her short style, she attracts the attention of the readers when she tells us about the scarecrow who is confused and tries to speak in a weird language whether he should like new human beings or old ones. She compares the stages of life with the varieties of ornamental feathers of the peacock symbolizing the three stages of life.

Crest beautifying

Forehead of peacock

Is symbolic of

Childhood

Full of comforts

Colourful enchanting feathers

Symbolize rainbow-colored youth

And grey paws

Are indicative of

Helpless old age.

In her poem Sparrow, Ankita Kagadansh gives wings to her mind and catches the thought of flight which is dependent much more on guts than knowing how to fly. In her simple yet powerful words reveals the fact of the flight of imagination and the real cause and vision behind it. She is the replica of her mother. She feels her mother strongly in her habits and nature and she resembles her mother in bodily features as well as with her soul which genetically approved her in the following lines:

I am well-versed with

As many songs

As my mother knew

I catch a cold exactly

As my mother used to

I, too, have headaches

Just as she is used to

My heels ache exactly

Like her aching feet

I take a meal only after

Serving meals to others

As was her routine

Maa!

When did you

Settle in me

Ditto.

 Bharati Purohit in her powerful sentiments for her father knits the garland of memories after her father departed from the material world, yet entangled in a whirlpool of heart, she has buried unshared, complicated memories reigning in her mind. The name of the father is as great as the sky above and the child feels boosted with high valour. Bharati has curated an expansive poetic and spiritual conversation, one that unfolds not in generalizations but in concrete points of reference within this richly populated spiritual conversation, she feels at points like she is whispering directly into the ear of the readers, filling up a cup inside her that we don't realize is empty. She expresses her deep sorrows thus:

Now, devoid of him

Home has turned into house

Words had very existence in father

Words are silent after his departure

After his ultimate departure

Innumerable books have

Lost their interpretation

 After so many restrictions and bondages, Bharati realizes her inner spirit as a woman power within her and proclaims that she has to peep through a lot of indulgences in self-introspection otherwise she can break the cage and fly high creating a space for her real identity as a human being.

In the poem Bugacho, the poetess Kamana Rajawat reminds an old cloth bag that her Grandma used to keep with her, and later her mother kept it with care then comes the turn of the poetess to have a sight and felt relaxed. She underlines the fact that a woman has to remain occupied in her household duties to perform than to find out her dreams:

Perhaps, we females

Try to search for ourselves

In our unaccomplished dreams

That we have forgotten

In complicacies of household

 I find a fiery spirit in the poems of Krishna Acharya for the modern way of life. She does not want to follow the tattered religious faiths but tries to rise above the pseudo-beliefs. Even though she does not like the string of beads given by her mother but wears them to make her mother happy. It does not mean that she does not believe in God. In the necklace she finds her deep faith infused in it as the powerful memory of her mother. She feels emotive when she describes the modern children going to school with enthusiasm and being busy finding out the modern implications of education than just following the traditional faiths. In her poem, I am A Tree; she declares that she apprehends herself as the embodiment of a tree:

I am a tree that has stuck

To the affection-brimmed bosom of the earth

Sipping nectar from it

I have entrusted my whole life

To creatures and cattle dwelling in it

For livelihood and survival

 In the poems of Krishna Kumari, we find a cry for the woman. She remains busy with domestic chores accomplishing several duties from dawn to midnight without any grudge yet gets a rare chance to think about her though being exhausted after a day's labour. She has no problem in doing all such jobs but whenever the question of the identity of a woman comes up, she cannot help saying that human relations are strange. This is the universal question of feminist identity. She gives many good instances that prove her thoughts about womanhood. She is worried about the life of the woman in a man's life. She wants to live in a carefree abode where nobody dwells in the deserted forest. They are being under domestic violence and even murdered for dowry. Her inner heart is revealed thus:

They don't have to bother about marriage

Neither botheration of moving to in-laws

Nor they are supposed to put on veils

Nor are they scared of getting burnt alive

In the fierce flames of dowry

Dare any husband to treat them as foot-wear

Will be kicked to fall headlong

 

But this poor woman?

What to describe? O! God

O! This world

This world of males

What can I say?

What can I say?

You ponder over this

You know better.

Manisha Arya Soni mentions priorities of her mother, who is going to be admitted to the operation theatre, thinking about the daily duties she used to perform rather than thinking about her ailment. She instructs the other members of her family to take care of milk in the fridge, set curd from milk, put water in the plant of Tulsi, feed to the sparrows, giving roti to cows and dogs timely. She emphasizes the importance of women thus:

This is the meaning of

Sanctity of domesticity of a woman

A woman who is engaged in

Making home better than the temple

Cannot go on her ultimate journey easily

Not feel attached to

Her jewellery and costumes

She stuck again

And diverts herself

In taking utter care of her home

Gets occupied in utilizing left-over cereals

Her vision gets struck on the calendar

Meenakshi Borana in her poem, Identity of Woman emphasizes the urgency of proclaiming a woman as a woman rather than embodying her as deity. She requires the dignity of humanity and the embodiment of compassion. She is an ordinary woman longing for a melodious song in praise of her mother. Her heart is brimmed with so many ideas about the maternal home. She oozes herself in the following lines:

When heart is

Full of love for mother

Today, waves of new notes

Are swaying in my throat

Light of affection is

Glowing in my heart

The mother hugs me tightly

In every re-birth on earth

I wish you to be my mother

This is my only longing.

 As a citizen of the world, Meenakshi Pareek aspires for a world with peace and prosperity where birds, as well as human beings, live in union singing the melody of hymns and prayers for the welfare of all the communities regardless of faith and creeds where all the basic facilities are available. 

 Poetess Neelam Pareek imposes the question of the identity of daughter in the poem, 'Where is my Sky'? She beautifully portrays her feelings; stating to her mother, she urges:

But Maa

Birds fly freely

In vast sky

If I am a bird

Where is my

Share of the sky?

In the poem, 'When did I Ever Forget?', the poetess never complaints about her being alone on dark lonely nights but urges to have the sprouting of love in the corner of her heart. She aptly describes her emotions thus:

In a corner of my heart

A Sapling of hope sprouted

It withered at times

And flourished at times

With a shower of pretentious love

Nurtured, kept on growing into a tree

 

Nirmala Rathore writes about her poetry and why she composes poetry is noteworthy for every writer of future potentialities. She states:

When the water of the ocean

Starts swinging in the cores of the heart

The uprising of agony enhances

Then a writer holds his pen

That agony assumes the form of

Cloudlet of the rainy season

And constantly flows

In the form of tears the writer

And settles down on paper

 Sharmila Soni's poem 'Pleading of Unborn Daughter' is the heart-wrenched story of the harsh reality faced by women who get aborted, in the pursuit of satisfying the ego of man's world. It is am emphatic appeal against femicide. In another Poem 'Daughters', she puts stress on the need for a girl child because daughters are the pride of home, fetching name and fame around the world yet . 

The poems of Siya Choudhary are inspirational, infused with a note where a mother teaches her daughter to fly high in the vast sky so that nobody is going to check her doing so. 

Here are nearly 85 poems in this beautiful anthology, covering established as well as emerging poetesses who are moving with firm steps on the literary corridors. If you read cover to cover (a great way to feel these deep in your marrow) you get, at first, a sense that several issues of identity of the woman are sought. Congratulations and best wishes to all the poetesses for this poetic bunch which will gain popularity among worthy readers. For this anthology, Rajni Chhabra deserves special appreciation that she has presented the true feelings of womanhood in the poems of Rajasthani culture.

-M.A. RATHORE

Author, Poet, and Translator

World Icon of Peace, Nigeria

Email: ma.rathore786@gmail.com

Mob: 09928295960