Rituals
Description
Rituals is a remarkable collection of poems by renowned poet, translator, editor, and critic Kiriti Sengupta. This latest book explores the panoply of human experience and elucidates the meanings and rhythms of a mature poetic life. "Customs are like meditation," writes Sengupta as he weaves religious liturgy and the opera of gods as the quotidian backdrop of married life and experiences with his son. Not just interested in the matter of appearances as a poet, he delves into questions of what makes an Indian and how Hindu goddesses can strengthen willpower and remove the 'venom' from life. The mythological and the quotidian blend and inform one another, the goddess appears in iterations of the wife, the daughter, the mother. These poems also talk about Monsoon and Muri as snacks that overlap with dialogues of intellect and Sanskrit. Themes such as nakedness and nudity are explored from the point of view of youth and maturity. Striking imagery marks the passing of time on everyday objects where the speaker can now stop and observe the beauty of human traces on life, "My tired eyes uncover the kohl of night." The speaker is not only interested in contemplating the beauty of everyday moments but also faces his reader with the violence of the modern world, in the poem "The Untold Saga" the violence of a mythological world mirrors the violence on women practiced often in the 21st century, offering a powerful statement on the untimely death of Nirbhaya in 2012. These poems are also meditations on our place in the world as humans, the vastness of the Earth compared to our frail bodies with the invitation to reconnect to the natural world.
Product Details
| Publisher | Hawakal Publishers |
| Publish Date | March 28, 2019 |
| Pages | 102 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9789387883529 |
| Dimensions | 8.0 X 5.0 X 0.2 inches | 0.3 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
- The poet thus becomes an "observer" who is an intrinsic part of the historical time within which he finds himself. In this volume, Sengupta is an observer not just of the social milieu around him, but also displays an uncanny ability to examine his own body, mind, family relationships, and the rituals surrounding each one of them, all while displaying a touch of amusement at his own small vanities. - Rain Taxi
- Sengupta absorbs the subtleties of life with a painter's eye and words come out in "full-throated ease." The lilting flow of verses pinpoints at the roots, the poet's affinity with his family gushes out with a hidden sense of loss, and the apparent simplicity of his verses, at times, hints at a profound sense of unease. - Colorado Review
- The title, in addition to its religious connotations, gestures toward the mystic connections we have with our universe. Rituals give us a sense of belonging. A ritual, repeated and practiced as a meditative performance, bridges the unnamed and unknown connections that exist in us and in nature. Rituals, as signs and symbols, hint at something beyond the ordinary, the mundane, the immediate reality, and assure us that we actually belong to someplace else. This unknown has many names. Religious practices all across the world try to define this space, be it in Sufism or in the philosophy of the Bauls. And it is to this lineage we observe that Sengupta's Rituals makes its unique mark. - The Critical Flame
- Rituals is not only about poetry built with words, its narrative draws on illustrations as well. The meditative quality of the book is deepened by the black and white-washed images that accompany poems. The illustrations by Partha Pratim Das are akin to Chinese brush painting and have an ethereal quality. They capture the barest essence of the poems, creating their own visual story. The poems and illustrations together create a jugalbandi of thought and image. Physically, the book delights with its elegance. Reading it is a mindful experience. - Jaggery
- Only from overcoming obstacles or persevering through the unknown do we realize what it means to tread this earth we often take for granted. Our recovery and return to equilibrium allow us to appreciate our relationship to nature - often neglected when we are too rooted to comfort. - Moria
- Sengupta adopts a unique, minimalistic style filled with buds of fine imagery. His verse has the power to absorb immense and expansive ruminations and then bear a most tender, glass-like condensed countenance. It is as if he weighs the words and always knows just the right number of letters for his concoction, an alchemist of verse. He values the alphabet and does not waste it. This yields us a crop of pearl-like poems, poignant, somber, and immensely beautiful, embodied with terse philosophies, messages, and sometimes a trace of deceptive humor. - Cha
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