HYDERABAD: It was an evening of poetry and music rendition that introduced poet-professor Urshila Chanana’s poetry collection ‘Nukta-e-Nazar’ in the city. To make the book more accessible, she has used Roman, Devanagari and Nastaliq scripts. The coffeetable book is divided into four sections namely Daur-E-Waqt, Alam-E-Tassavur, Rumaniyat and Khushzauqi. She explains why she divided her poems in these sections, “We all come from a process of evolution, time and flux. The moving wheel brings in a lot of changes that go in our making. We have four seasons which shape us in their own way.
That’s why there are four sections in the book.” The verses in the book explore the complexity of human relationships in the Post Modern ethos in a Lawrencian way. She adds, “The ‘otherness of the other’ attracts me, more so because it was a part of my doctoral research. The individual components are looked at differently by different people at the same time. Each one perceives his/her own image.”
But when one goes deeper into the book, the lyrical poems speak of socially rooted problems. “Each poem is a conversation. The style is evocative from two angles: cosmic and ordinary presented through a world spectrum. The way two countries or two converse with each other, the language conflicts. I hope tolerant perspectives emerge and for better.” She laments that the divisions that we have created have to dissolve.” She adds, “The deadwood of the past has to be cut.” Sample these lines from her poem: rahbar-e-kamil kya koi ayegabe-twazun yeh duniya qayamat hui jaati hai The lines are powerful and evocative. The other 60 poems in the book, too, follow the similar rhythm lending depth to the overall meaning.
At the event, singer Renee Ghosh lent her poems musical rendition singing them in her beautiful voice. The book is an interesting compilation of observation as seen by a sensitive poet who also happens to be a scholar of English Literature. But we just wish the book was smaller in size and not so heavy to hold.