Bhaskar Parichha
Rarely does one come across a collection of poems largely on one’s own dwelling and its myriad signposts. Abhishek Tripathy’s poetry collection does exactly that. Young in age and heart, the poems have, according to the blurb, a ‘human element in them.’
There are the poems of love and longing. Then there are ‘poems about the environment and pollution, about death and separation.’ The themes and ideas at the back of each of these poems are emotive. Tripathy is a Delhi-based Indian Revenue Service Officer and, besides a blogger, also contributes frequently to newspapers.
The first thing that catches attention is the book’s cover. Acrylic on canvas by Mumbai- based artiste Shubha Gokhale from her ‘Nayika’ series, this collection has a little more than thirty poems.
Most of the poems have a stroke of homesickness and read like ‘tourism poetry.’ If there are poems on Bombay, Kolkata, and Darjeeling, there are verses on a couple of tourist places of Odisha one is familiar with – Chandrabhaga, Kolab, Mahanadi, Mahendratanaya, Daya, Ansupa, Mangalajodi and a host of other places.
In the poem ‘Mahendratanaya – The Departure’ the personification is redolent: ‘Whose daughter are you? Asked the Rickshawwala/As Tanaya stepped out of the dark…. / I am the daughter of the mighty Mahendragiri/ He towers over this land.’
Similar sentimentality can be found in other poems: ‘The wide canvas of the sky has been able to catch the flight of the birds/The Kolab mirrors it back as if to say, fly on, for there are no fears’(Kolab).
‘Mahanadi’ is another poem where the poet’s keenness for the downtrodden is noteworthy: ‘Ramulu came and sat by the old river/Seemed like they had both aged together/In a week’s time Ramulu would marry off his daughter /So he and his son have been busy saving/The grand old river has been kind /Throwing a good catch for the wedding to solemnize.’
In Nostalgia/Kolkata, there is schmaltziness writ large: ‘I find an ethereal, beautiful sweetness ensconced in its depths, like a delicious piece of sweet/It merges the past, the present and the tomorrow into masterful dough of taste.’
The poet has an astonishing sense of history and he successfully tries to weave the times gone by into charming and lucid verse. ‘Padma’ the title poem has some evocative lines when he says: The cities that I have lived in/ Do not satiate my longing for home /I dream of Padma and my village pond.’
Abhishek Tripathy’s flair to interlace words from ordinary settings is brilliant. Some poems in the collection are over-romantic and some are down- to- earth. Some have concern and some others have empathy for the underprivileged. This maiden collection of poems is inspiring and plunks on a positive note.