If
I have regular readers then they would know for sure that poems have a special
place in my heart. When I met the author of “Initial offerings” while working
with her during the Kolkata Literature Festival 2017 and learnt that she is a poet,
I couldn’t resist myself from grabbing hold of her book and reading it. The
result of which, is this review. The minimalistic cover is what drew me to the
book while I turned the pages and went through the blurb.
According
to the blurb- Initial offerings is a
poignant yet tender collection of poems which offers its readers a pure and a
beautiful expression of the author’s emotions and feelings of life as-is. These
poems have an uncanny hint of spiritualism in them. It is a combination of
multiple themes and elements that give this book its universality, suppleness
and infinite appeal. Rupali addresses topics such as love, devotion, the
subconscious mind and qualities such as humility, arrogance, indifference,
beauty, dream and desire. This book is a paradox of sorts as here you will find
a poem about death (Death of my beautiful poem) and another about ‘Life being
so precious!’ This book will take you on your own personal spiritual journey
and help to rationalize some of your feelings bottled deep inside in the most
understated of ways. Be prepared to be surprised!
I
know that everybody reading this would second me if I say that I have been
surprised with the blurb of the book. Never before had I read any blurb of a
poetry book that is so beautiful. Reading this, I was sure that I have to read
the book. As I kept on flipping through the pages from one poem to another, I
was so engrossed in the writing that I almost forgot the world around me. Yes,
I would agree to the fact right in the beginning that the poems are lengthy and
might seem stretched at places but as you keep reading through it, you would
fall in love with the writing style of the poetess.
Talking
about the writing style, I need to say this. As the poetry in the book
progresses, you tend to find a tune in the poetess’s words. There is a specific
style in which the poetess writes and the style catches on to you. Guess what
happened to me? After I finished reading the book, I re-read it and after that
whenever I wanted to write something or the other, I ended up writing almost
like the poetess. All the more reason to wait for a day or two before framing
up and uploading the review. One of the best things that I liked about the book
is the fact that it has all flavours and all themes incorporated in it. It doesn’t
limit itself to just one theme.
The
contradictions in the book and the fact that two contradictory themes can exist
in one book tells every reader how polished the writer is. I also loved the
fact that there are two acknowledgements in the whole book. One, to begin and
the other to end. Aptly justifying the name, these offerings make the book what
it is. If I have to list the cons of the book then I would say that the poems
are lengthy (and I realised that I have mentioned that earlier) and also the
fact that the book is a few poems too short. I would have loved the book had
there been more poems. Having said that, I also expected a few poems to be
crisper than it already is. Even though I am always in favour of wordy sentences,
poems at times demand crisper lines. All said and done, I would give this
book 4 out of 5. Looking forward to more writings from the poetess.
