[ultimate_heading main_heading=”Ocean of Thoughts by Sangeeta Mahesh” main_heading_color=”#1e73be” sub_heading_color=”#8224e3″ spacer=”line_with_icon” spacer_position=”bottom” line_style=”dotted” line_height=”1″ line_color=”#1e73be” icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”id^48|url^http://ashvamegh.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ashvamegh-ICO.jpg|caption^null|alt^Ashvamegh Journal Icon|title^Ashvamegh ICO|description^null” img_width=”48″ main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;” main_heading_font_size=”desktop:34px;” line_width=”3″ margin_design_tab_text=””]poems conveying various thoughts, issues and indeed, pleasure of poetry…[/ultimate_heading]
Book – Ocean of Thoughts
Author – Sangeeta Mahesh
Publisher – Authors Press (2014)
Page Numbers – 63
Reviewed by – Alok Mishra
Ocean of Thoughts… the title itself tells a thousand stories! Today I am going to review a book, rather a collection of poems, in fact, maiden, by a poet and academician – Sangeeta Mahesh. Sangeeta is a bilingual poet, writing in Hindi and English. This present collection of her poems in English opens the gate to a wonderful exhibition of thoughts. Well, if I don’t let you know the subtitle of the book, or you could also say it rather an intensifier – poems about social issues and human values. And Sangeeta justifies this subtitle with her poems collected in the book Ocean of Thoughts.
“The change is in the air
The new hope, the new cheer
In the world all over” (pp 53)
Indeed, this present generation of authors and poets writing in English (in India) has emerged with many hopes, many ideas and many new dimensions of literary journeys. Sangeeta is musing over time, on feminism, on problems of hunger in India, on religion, on Gods and on various issues. However, one thing that lingers throughout the book is celebration of the poetry. Even when talking about the grave concerns, Sangeeta Mahesh has not let her poetry be ‘uncalled-for’. She remains poetic like her verse itself:
“Don’t ponder over loss or gain
This will only give you pain
Work hard and live in the present
The life then you will entertain” (pp 58)
I have enjoyed reading the poems by Sangeeta – a true poetess. Nevertheless, I am as cynic a critic as was T. S. Eliot in his early days of criticism. However, she has left lesser chances for me to find faults in her work. A very provoking part of one of her poems that I would like to share with the readers talks about the sacrifice of a mother:
“My dear mother
You are the flame of candle
You melted all your needs
To fulfil ours” (pp 59)
There is nothing new seeing a poet coming out with verse praising the ‘sweetest gift to mankind’. However, what makes a poem great – the game of words that we play with the help of metaphors and similes and connecting our words with the feelings of the readers. And I think, at some instances, the analogies used by Sangeeta are truly wonderful!
Yes, like we all, as creative writers, know that there is always a ground for getting better and better and we keep learning process on and on. Some of the poems in the collection Ocean of Thoughts are merely additions to the ongoing ‘unacknowledged anthologies’ on some major issues. The poem ‘What is life’ is an example of that. The poet talks of courage and confidence that we need to cross the river of high and low waves… However, irrespective of everything high and low, the book by Sangeeta is a refreshing dose of poetry that you might enjoy in leisure to lighten yourself with what is going on in the word of creative writing around you…. Happy reading guys!
