Reading poetry has been my favourite leisure practice for many years now. I enjoy reading poems of various kinds and I have read a hell lot of poetry, believe me. However, let me admit that I did never come across such a blunt, hard-hitting, stuffed with realism to the brim, communicated in a common language and rich with imagery that’s loaded in apparent measures. I am talking about Lov Pathak’s debut poetry collection, The Poetician, subtitled A Common Man’s Satire and rightly so. You will feel the same once you start reading it… and, let me also tell you that you will never know when it ended… it’s a quick, flashy read and instantly compelling. However, the poetry by Lov should not go unnoticed and therefore I had to write this book review of his debut poetry collection.

The Poetician sounds like a lonely cry of a person who is betrayed by the ways of the world, the modern world to be precise. The narrator of the poems, perhaps all of them unless the poet specifies he is himself the subject of it, seems to follow a certain pattern – taking the readers back in time and showing what was different (and better too, perhaps) and then bringing back to the present – is this what you expected? A kind of question always remains which becomes almost a quest, more than a normal query. What did we lose to get what we got? Was it worth it?

The most interesting part of this poetry collection was the language used by the poet. Lov Pathak has used Roman scripts to write his poetry in Hindi and it matches with the mood and momentum of modern readers very much. We don’t have time to understand the purity of linguistic skills and read the purest form of a language… which is bad, of course… however, this limitation has given rise to the new lexicon that most of the authors and poets have started using in their works. Lov Pathak, nevertheless, has gone many steps ahead and he has used the Hindi language in English letters… it’s like, kuchh samajh me aya?

Kyunki Rasgulla to humara mool mantra tha aur jalebi humara gotra
Poori kachori samose khane walon ko hi Foodie kehte hain mere dost

The centre of the poetry collection is decorated with humour, satire and grave concerns that the realised readers or critical readers will surely notice very soon. The poems will entertain the readers who read to enlighten their moods. The poems will ask questions of those readers who read to learn and satisfy their hunger for more knowledge, concerns and ideas. However, to critical readers like us, the poetry collection has raised many dilemmas.

Is this where modern literature is heading to? After the concept of multi-genre fiction, is the time for hybrid language literature here? Well, whatever be the case, Lov Pathak has rung the ears of many with The Poetician: A Common Man’s Satire and I truly believe the poetry collection has the potential to raise the eyebrows of readers across the disciplines of being a reader…

You can get a copy of this poetry collection from Amazon India and read it today! Click below to get a copy:

Buy the book now – Amazon India link – click here 

Review by Anivesh for Featured Books