Books and Culture

Some students put fire to the sociology department in the Tribhuvan University a couple of days ago.

Pashupati Nath’s Agam Ghar, a house where the secret tantrik worship used to be done, has burnt down to ashes.

The streets of Kathmandu are burning everyday. This is the ‘season of fire’. And here is Laxmi Mali, who feels the heat and passes it on the readers.

Aago ko Yaam — ‘Season of Fire’ is her collection of poems. Her poetry is not mere figments of imaginations, but a mirror the times we live in. The book depicts our time and the tears and the smiles of our time.

Poems like Nachhe Galli and Manmaya are snapshots of not only our time, but the space that we inhibit in. The people and places we visit in her poems are disarmingly familiar to us. The places seem our neighbourhood and the people we met last evening. The metaphors and symbols in her poetry are not surreal and obscure, as some other modern poets’ tends to be.

With pain and tragedies abounding, she rarely lacks the fuel to reflect the heat from the fire within and without. The charm of her poetry lies in her warm, disarming tone and style that invites the readers to partake in a question like kaskalagi (for whom). If she writes of fire, it is because she feels. And when she writes of pain, she feels it.

While social disparity hurts her, the familiar as well as the sudden mysteries of nature seems to hold her spellbound. A subtle contrast between nature’s charms and human woes is the centre of attraction of her poems. And like all good work of art, it touches the hearts of total strangers.

Mulyankan Prakashan Griha is the publisher of Aago ko Yaam, which is a must read. Reality hurts and the poems in the collection seem very real.

Statutory Warning: Don’t read the book because, reality not only hurts but also burns; after all it’s the Season of Fire.

As birds twitter at the break of day,

And morning bustle starts holding sway,

Around Bhadrakali, Sankata and Sundhara,

Life at Nachhe Galli throbs through every strata.

Swept roads, given a new coat of sheen,

Sprinkled by shaking buckets unseen.

Wafting aroma of Gwaramari and Chatarmari,

Impatient hoards of connoisseurs in a hurry.

A shuffle here, a hustle there,

End of a morning walk,

Topped with unending talk,

An argument, an agreement gay,

Nachhe Galli is having just another day.

                          (Nachhe Galli)

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Book — Aago ko Yaam (A poetry collection with 31 poems)

Poet — Laxmi Mali

Publisher — Mulyankan Prakashan Griha

Price — Rs 50.

Pages — 56