Book Review: On Love, Death and Other Sundry Matters by Sandesh Pathak

‘On Love, Death and Other Sundry Matters…’ by Sandesh Pathak is a powerful yet candid collection of poems. It seems like most of the poems spiraling off poet’s experiences and wisdom, yet depicts a plight of life that celebrates pain and weeps with love with an equal élan. Since the collection has robust stance on love, death and other sundry matters, inevitably an aroma of diversity builds up in the backdrop. Themes such as fear and tranquility in death, love and loss and restlessness are rivetingly concurrent in the book. Other than that there is much more but underneath runs a voice that is hard to decipher.

In the short collection, the poet kept a vigilant eye on balancing the poems theme-wise, for instance Nirvana is quite a terrific poem appealing for peace while caught in the despair of death, and the longest poem is about that ejection seat of a jet fighter, since the poet hails from navy and aviation field that poem is direct from his den. Well, it has a wonderful meaning: ‘Haste Maketh Waste.’

One of the brilliant prose and the treacherous reality of life seems hanging in the Altocumulus – a sort of cloud. For those who observe the sky in isolation may find its value true to their existence. Wait a minute…Sandesh still flies so his acquaintance with cumulus and altocumulus clouds could be a normal affair.

Likewise, even the other poems in the collection are too good to savour and save for some other time. Before concluding the review, one poem needs a special praise – Riddle Me This – a long walk across the beach and the sight of a dilapidated pair of shoes. One can leave them, pair them, or break them. That’s mind blowing irony!

At times one needs to re-read the poems to delve deeper into the depths, otherwise it’s an excellent collection to leave you stunned with its exquisite charming influence. If you got a huge poetic side, embrace it; treasure it for your use and dose.

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