Book Review Of Raghav Prashant Sundar's Anityam by Ananya Sarkar

 

Anityam

Raghav Prashant Sundar 

Yavanika Press, 2023

Pages: 30 Price: INR 175

A Spiritual Kaleidoscope

Raghav Prashant Sundar's debut poetry collection Anityam is an exploration of devotion, spirituality and myth through the shortest poetic form – haiku. A manufacturing engineer by profession, the talented Sundar has his own illustrations for each of the poems. Here, when a poem and artwork come together, the result is a powerful amalgam that stokes the imagination ever so subtly.

The poet of this collection is a modern-day devotee and this clearly comes across in the unique, creative analogies he draws in his works. Thus, an image of the five hands of Goddess Shakti and the poem "i'm happy and i know it :: you clap your hands" shows how we constantly seek divine approval, even when we are happy. So it is not enough to feel blissful till the Higher Power applauds our actions. And when the many-armed Goddess claps her hands, the applause is loudest and our satisfaction the highest. Interestingly, the words of the poem remind us of the familiar nursery rhyme "When you're happy and you know it, clap your hands". But in this case, it is the Goddess who is appealed to, to clap her hands.

Again, an inkpot with a quill goes with the terse words "any moment now i art". It depicts how creation can take place at any point. Also, the word "art" meaning "am" in Old English refers to how we can realize ourselves at any juncture too, without the constraints of time and space. Another interesting piece is the illustration of two ancient sandals, each positioned in a reverse direction and the word "a/dharma" written underneath. It refers back to the epic Ramayana where the critical choices of the central character Ram are rife with debate. Did he follow the righteous path when he went into exile? Or leave Sita in the humble hut of Valmiki even after she had cleared the agni pariksha (test of fire)? Even other major characters like Lakshman, Vibhishan, and Ravan had to make equally challenging choices at the crossroads of their lives. Did each of them follow their dharma (right way of living) or did they knowingly or unknowingly do the opposite and commit adharma (stark deviation from righteousness)? As the contours of dharma change with perspective and time, we come to realize that maybe right and wrong is not that different after all. The poem prompts this epiphany ever so gently.

There is a tinge of humour in some of the poems, which makes them all the more enjoyable. For example, the haiku that accompanies the sketch of the chariot in which Arjun had battled in the Kurukshetra remarks at the oddity of the place where Krishna had given the former "a pep talk" before the commencement of war. Again, the poem on kanakadhara (river of gold) plays with the image of a wine glass with gold coins pouring in and the speaker uttering in a tongue-in-cheek style that they will indicate when the bartender is to stop. The implication is that they may never utter "when" as they can never have their fill of kanakadhara.

Overall, Sundar’s work hints at the transience of all the things that awe and amaze, unsettle and disturb, or intrigue us altogether. As Sundar aptly puts it in the Preface, "Everything around me is impermanent – my life, my belongings, my dreams – they're all just an illusion, a veil put there by the Goddess." And it is this impermanence or "anityam" in Sanskrit that each haiku poem in the collection captures and crystallizes. In this respect, it is much like a spiritual kaleidoscope that’s fascinating to see.