Blurb:
(From the foreword by Kris Saknussemm)
As with all the poets I most admire, words are living things for Tikuli. But as
you will come to discover, they are never deployed for their own sake. She uses
them to tell stories. The images, scenes, characters and fragments of visionary
empathy that you will find in this book are all rooted in her native India-and
yet they reach out far beyond national and cultural boundaries. They do so
because they have an interior cohesion of spirit. Her subjects are often the dispossessed,
the lost...the abused. There are undercurrents of sorrow and anger. And yet
love shines through, even when it seems to be fading away. Above all, there's a
powerful sense of hope at work-a conviction in the redemptive strength of
poetry.
Review:
The first question that came to my
mind was, why the name “Collection Of Chaos”. I read and I wondered. I
questioned and somewhere through the lines my questions were answered. Tikuli’s expression is unabashed and direct.
She conveys the stories, the pains, the paths, the dark and the light in
various forms. The chaos is both inclusive and exclusive. It is driven by inner
demons, pains and struggles and it is also an outcome of societal evils, demons
running through our culture and influencing our thoughts, expressions and hence
actions.
In all this chaos we also see a line of faith, which may appear faint
or may not appear at all but it is there. In between those lines, through
various stories, there is a spirit of faith.
Tikuli starts with a gentle reminder
of the presence of poetry everywhere, and gradually moves towards the darker
side of expression. Some poems are definitely not for weak hearted. A few lines
would touch your soul and some would become a part of who you are but the more
you read, the more you would want to read.
One of my favourites, something that I
could relate to, and something that I wish I could express in a similar manner
is “Little hand prints”. It broke my heart, made me teary eyed but still it left a
lingering hope that there are still few out there who are saving lives.
The poet moves from one life to
another, from one pain to another, from one form to another but the expression remains
beautiful. Some stories have open wounds, conveying a plethora of aches. Some will make you shiver in disbelief but
you will still read, consumed and spent in the moment.
The poems are direct, there is no
cover up. You won’t be able to hide the pain behind the lines. And then there
would be some which will make you smile a little in nostalgia.
Another one of my favorite is “The
Banyan Tree”. Banyan tree is the
reminiscent of memories. It lives forever, grows, moves from roots to roots but
still never changes. Tikuli has expressed the memories, the stories, and the
significance of the tree in those stories so well in few words. If only the
tree could speak, it would share something similar.
Somewhere through the pages, I became
a part of the chaos. I loved the expression. It is free flowing and yet direct. It has a soul and not effusive sentimentality. Less is more and each expression is complete in itself. The book for me is definitely a must buy.
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About the Author:
Brought up in Delhi in a family of
liberal educationists Tikuli is a mother of two sons. She is also a blogger and
author. Some of her short stories and poems have appeared in print and in
online journals and literary magazines including Le Zaparougue, MiCROW 8, Troubadour21,
The Smoking Book (Poets Wear Prada Press, US), The Enchanting Verses Literary
Review, Mnemosyne Literary Journal, Women's Web.
Some of her print publications include
poems in Guntur National Poetry Festival Anthology and much acclaimed Chicken
Soup For The Indian Romantic Soul(Westland). Her work has also been featured on
websites related to gender issues and child sexual abuse. She blogs at
Stalk her @
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