Book Review :When The Seeds Would Sprout (Poetry collection) by Dr. Hemendra Singh Chandalia,

Any artist, whether a sculptor, a painter, an actor, a poet, or an author, in short, any person who wants to make or create and may be even destroy, there is some obsession in him /her towards life or some aspects of it; either in representing, reflecting, investigating, criticizing or even in destroying. But an artist is obsessed with life even if only to contradict it. That’s why people like Kafka, Keats, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Dickens, Woolf, Plath, Whitman, and many more have written on various aspects of life. Even those known to have been the most destructive people like Hitler has written his autobiography, titled ‘Mein Kampf’. Hence, I gather an extreme element of something is needed to have an obsession with life.

Truth be told, life doesn’t seem to like being represented, or maybe likes to challenge the one trying to do so. Reading any book of the above-mentioned or classical writers might lead you to the same or a conclusion close to mine. But reading the book When the seeds would sprout, I felt it came close to depicting the life around us, and also somehow managed to give us a glimpse into the poet’s world too.

“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

The poet tries to depict our life, the Indian life, and tries to sensitize us to the concerns around and the issues with which, thanks to the televised and socialised forces, we have become desensitized. The poet doesn’t, in any way, try to hide his objective as in the introduction he clearly says that-

“The poems of this small collection have been composed as a series of outbursts inspired by what is going around in the country.”

The poet understands the necessity to speak, not of his problems but of the public, because some who promised to listen are busy somewhere else. Various poems focus on the farmers’ protest and don’t explicitly try to promote their agenda, but they humanise them like in the poem ‘The Republic’

‘The nation is observing

The Republic day!...

Who will salute the public

On the Republic day?’

This rhetorical question hits hard in the next stanza when the speaker says,

‘Those who die on the roads

Do not get gallantry awards, they say.’

You also get reminded of Viktor Shklovsky’s ‘Defamiliarization’ concept in some poems like ‘Rains I loathe!’ As rain, which is probably one of the most favourite elements of a Romantic poet, and is also necessary in general, like, for survival.

The speaker, after saying that no one could loathe rain as it is the giver of life to plants, strength to trees, melody to musing minds, and love to parted lives, goes on to say that he loathes it today as-

‘they precede hailstorm

To shower troubles

On the fighting farmers.’

The poet plays with you, his hold of simple yet layered words sometimes hits you so hard that you pause to think and reflect the varied meanings, sometimes you jerk yourself to a stop reading a line embodying a universal truth, that too presented in a manner relevant to one’s life like in the poem titled ‘ No Solace for an Erring Man’

‘A little slip is a major flaw

Which so many hidden mysteries bares

A little haste causes a major waste

And punishes one who boldly dares.’

The given lines take one to their internal experiences compared to the ones above, which take you to your surroundings. But in each and every poem, the poet tries to show you something which you may or may not like. You might get uncomfortable or might get zoned out, thinking of things but the poet is clear of his objectives as he says,

‘The obvious task before me has been to talk my heart out and tell the audience how I look at things.’

While reading the poems, you could feel the hold of the poet over your eyes, as in some poems, he allows you to glide past the pages with a glimpse, while in some, he doesn’t allow you to move past a sentence-

‘What makes caste so sacred and fragile

That it gets shaken by a shoe?

An innocent shopkeeper is taken in custody

Just for selling shoes with “Thakur”

Printed on its sole!”

AND

‘Faith is a warm touch

Of glow in an innocent eye

Looking upwards

Towards a kind and

benevolent shine

Holding one by

A finger of light.’

Poet is essentially a Romantic as he says-

‘Poetry is the voice of the heart. It is not a product of a technical craft which is composed after calculation…’

His definition has the same tone as of Wordsworth’s definition which is-

‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquillity.’

Various elements of Romanticism like focus on nature, the subjective experience of the individual, emphasis on imagination, simple language, rejecting conventions and also the focus on ordinary people are all reflected in the poems.

Look at the lines-

‘The abundance of nature

Teaches us

Large heartedness to give

Share the gifts of God…’

Emphasises or describes nature while the lines-

‘Today I put on

My Father’s coat

I felt two inches taller

My steps were longer

My eyes looked straight…’

Showcases a touch of the poet’s personal experience while the lines in the form of a question-

‘Coming from a nowhere land

Waking you up with its galloping stride

Who could it be in your dreams

That flies on wings and makes you glide?’

Demands the readers to keep up with the poet’s imagination.

As we all know that Romanticism was also a critique of industrialisation or for the present context, the fast-paced life we live today, that’s one of the reasons why it reverts back to nature and asks us to find beauty in simple things and language.

‘It is not just trees that have roots… The need to draw nourishment/ is there in every man and his class.’

The poet too, like a Romantic is subtly asking the readers to go back to roots, to take a pause, live a little as ‘A streaming cup of morning tea…/Also much of life’s bliss contain…’

It’s not necessary for one to live a luxurious, sophisticated life as much as it’s not necessary to use a grandiloquent language, polished style, lofty diction, great thoughts as for the poet often, ‘The sublimity of poetry lies/ Often in things mundane.’

Though one could also find a mixture of Romantics in some poems like in a poem titled ‘Vagrant Varansi’ you would find echoes of Wordsworth when he is describing the city like-

‘This morning/Of the Poorvanchal is hazy/Sun shrouded in mist/Trees silent/Leaves asleep,/Birds,however,at work/Chirping homely notes/Just gossiping.

But as you follow along the poem you would also find Blake whispering in the lines-

‘Rulers malign/The age-old traditions/Of love and compassion?/Five old men/Recite the wisdom of Kabir/Undeterred by/The honking of automobiles…

This book is a must have, especially in the present times, when majority of forces are trying to entrap in their words. This book allows you to breathe in between the words instead of bombarding them at your face. The poet considers it necessary to think, reflect and ask questions even the rhetorical ones but he also understands that issues aren’t life’s entirety, there are still things tangible and intangible to explore for which an obsession is a must.