Böcker av Saumitra

Saumitra's collection of poems 'Mitra' is such a call reverberating in the interludes of memory in which salutations and relations have merged. For Saumitra, time is a gallery filled with vibrant imagery. The words coming and going in this gallery are inundated with the unique brilliance of meanings. 'Chidiya' or 'bird' is the seed word of many poems of Saumitra, from which he has revealed the formulations of life, irony, and destiny. Saumitra, encountering the evident, explores some of the profound questions of existence in such a way that the meaning of an individual's existence suddenly acquires broader connotations. Saumitra has been able to identify a disquiet soul and subdued sensitivity in his poetry-which is noteworthy.A remarkable feature of the poems of 'Mitra' is their fluidity and simplicity. Sometimes they open so intimately that they feel weightless alike poetic fragrance. The silent cry of physical, ideological, and cultural displacement can also be read here. Among all these 'diverging circles' are the units of relationship from which life is constructed. It must be said that Saumitra is deeply immersed in life, and those vibes are all but evident.If we examine this collection of poems with contemporary Hindi poems, it will be clear that there is no extra dread of intellectualism here. There is a rare humility in Saumitra which also determines the form of these poems. The poems of 'Mitra' are rich in communicativeness due to the simple language, the craft reaching the limit of craftlessness, and unique informality. Awarded the Navlekhan Award of Bharatiya Jnanpith, 'Mitra' is a meaningful intervention in the contemporary poetry of Hindi.

'The Romanticism of a Dreamer' is a long poem by Saumitra.If we think of long-poems, Nirala's 'Ram ki Shaktipuja', Trilochan's 'Nagai Mehra', Muktibodh's' Andhere Mein', 'Patkatha' by Dhumil, and 'Lukman Ali' by Saumitra Mohan at once spring to mind. You may also find long-poems by Vishnu Khare, Leeladhar Jagudi, Chandrakant Devtale, Man Bahadur Singh and Bhagwat Rawat, but any search for the genre after them leaves you empty handed.The present poem by Saumitra may be taken as the next page of the Hindi poetic tradition. Entering the core of the poem one feels the poet's anxiety about the present. And what exactly is that concern? Racial violence, estrangement, loss of freedom, pillage, genocide, bloodshed in name of religion, struggle for dominance-- these are the burning issues that have not only taken hold of today's India, but the entire world. These are the flames devouring natural human values like freedom, love and sympathy. Saumitra is a dreamer, who has nothing to lose but a world to gain-- who yearns for peace, tranquillity and freedom for the entire humanity. He gives form to the contemporary tragedy through miniature images and pictures. The truth of today's life is not presented here through some romantic perspective, but rather through that eye for a reality in which sages like Abraham Lincoln, John Hus and Mahatma Gandhi had to lay down their lives for the sake of freedom, love and unity. This poem written in simple, straightforward diction, presents the blood-smeared history of human cruelty, in backdrop of which, despite hopelessness, there is yet enough sparkle of hope to make man stand up again. Actually it's the quality of our native tradition which has been conveyed through a unique mode of expression.When Marium, Lincoln and Gandhi get metamorphosed into the persona of the poet, it exemplifies his life-association: "Halt friendStay putCome!Exchange your ideas With meFor humanity's sake--"This transfer of ideas has the power to connect man with man. Saumitra in reality, is a poet with a desire-- a pleader for the entire humanity. With a dream for a society in which man may breathe in his natural form. This long-poem is the living image of that dream.- Hari Bhatnagar