The poetic veins within Varun Gandhi

by Dilshan Boange

[Part 3]

Continuing from last week, this concluding instalment of the article will continue the discussion on the poetry of Varun Gandhi who is a great grandson of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and presently an elected member of the Indian legislature as a member from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

His poetry can be read on his official website (http://varungandhi.net.in/), which has been the source for me to make a selection of poems to be discussed for the readers of the Sunday Observer’s Montage. Having looked at four of the six selected poems for discussion, in the two previous installments of this series, I will now focus in this article on the poems ‘Father to Son’ and ‘The Return of Introspection’.

‘Father to Son’

Considering a facet of the poet’s own life I wondered if the poem ‘Father to Son’ by its very title was meant to speak of VG’s own thoughts about a parental dialogue that may reflect his creation of a possible fictional interaction with his own father the late Sanjay Gandhi who suffered a premature death and sadly deprived VG the opportunity to get to know his father.

However the text of the poem proved to be from my reading of it something far removed from the premise of a situation creating a father and son moment linked to the poet himself. This poem proved to be rather challenging in certain respects to read in terms of its symbolism. Consider the following lines excerpted from the poem.

I thought, “Picture perfect but dead
like the flowers in my room”

Surface appearance

The words seem to speak of the worth of surface appearances. Façades that may have no substance or life sustained. The image of a stillborn child sprang to my mind and what pains that could erupt in the hearts of the expectant parents. VG directs some attention in the text of the poem to the word ‘ambivalence’ which speaks of the conflict within.

The clash of opposing forces pulling in different directions. Perhaps it is to build a symbolic scenario of a how an image (a child) that ought to personify life can function as an image of death –a corpse that enters the world as ‘death’.

The poem ends with the line “I need death more than my son.” Perhaps it is meant that what is desired finally is the means to end pain –death.

But couldn’t, I wondered, to have the son come alive, also mean an end to pain? Maybe there is much doubt as to what good will come to a child born to a world of chaos and misery. The still born child is a punishment possibly to the one who sired it since no ‘life’ was ever intended by fate.

The poem ‘Father to Son’ at a symbolical level of metaphor could mean the death of a dream that was conceived but never birthed. An ideal that died before being realised.

Perhaps the outcomes of unions between groups that can dilute or subvert a once noble ideal, vision, goal, may be read out of the text.

‘The return of introspection’

In ‘The return of introspection’ what I found is a voice that speaks of a spirit that is finding a resurgence of its energies and the will to rise to the occasion.

Before focusing on lines from the text of the poem I’d like to focus on how the word ‘of’ denotes how introspection is seen as the ‘moving force’ as opposed to it being a ‘passive premise’ that the poet arrives at, in which case the preposition used would have been ‘to’ instead.

Introspection is, therefore, in the context of the poem a force that allows the energy within that reposes waiting to be rekindled, to surge through the veins of the poet whose conscience is made to wake on account of seeing the pathos that is spreading and to which he cannot be blind.

“There is a whole generation
clawing at the wheels of cars”

Image

In the above lines excerpted from the poem there is a very potent image that speaks of present day poverty stricken communities that face much debility in the face of growing mercantilism. ‘Wheels of cars’ as an image signal the lowest part of what can be treated as a symbol of affluence – the motorcar. The wheels of the car is what literally touches the ground. Yet it is also the least ‘graspable’ part when in motion.

It is very interesting to note how VG has created this image of irony that can speak metaphorically of how the poor are faced with opportunities that they may touch briefly but not hold on to and possess.

One that sprang to my mind instantly was how the ‘hire and fire’ system of employing causal workers may resonate with this metaphoric scene that could be read as a symbolism about the problems relating to employment and job security that many are faced with in the world today and it becomes possibly more pronounced in India today in the wake of a billion plus population.

Connotations of images

The connotations of an image such as the one discussed are surely literal and metaphorical in the context of rampant poverty existing side by side with unbridled luxuriance enjoyed by a few. And it may not be unfound to say that it is not a fictional sight to see in certain parts of India how a massive economic disparity between the rich and poor creates a ‘whole generation’ locked into the vicious cycle of poverty and being made to survive on “feeding off each others’ screams” as the poem goes onto narrate.

Surely these are problems that a young statesman in public office as VG has found troubling his heart and mind which have in turn found an image in his poetic expression.

A very conscientiously made statement appears to be found in the following lines in the poem –

“To search for freedom and the search for love

lie on separate paths”

What could the young poet possibly mean through the above lines? Why have these two paths which involve very positive ideas as ‘love’ and ‘freedom’ have to be on separate paths? Perhaps what the poet is hinting to the reader through what he has learnt of life and the past is that to search for ‘freedom’ could mean the meeting of conflicts and struggles as is the case for any movement that seeks liberation.

Paths and sacrifices

And on that path one must be mindful that is it possible that ‘hatreds’ could very well spring up against whom you define as your foes and obstructers. The ‘search for love’ on the other hand can be a struggle that is more individually and subjectively pursued, while a people that seek to emancipate itself from the clutches that enslave it must work as a collective.

The poem ends with the following lines, evoking the spirit of a voice dedicated to fulfil what is believed to be his duty, regardless of what personal sacrifices may have to be made.

“If there is no new kindness
let me put my bad shoulder to the wheel to return to introspection to hunt the sky of one mind.”

I feel that the poet speaks very strongly of his resignation to the fact that true service to the country and people involves readiness to make sacrifices of personal happiness.

In this sense it could be noted as answering the call of one’s conscience. And what is interesting to note is that the line before the last reads as ‘to return to introspection’.

Here the use of the preposition ‘to’ as opposed to the ‘of’ used in the title indicates that introspection as a force that caused the poet’s conscience to awaken has now become ‘the premise’ to which the poet will consciously step towards, possibly to review what has come to pass so that a path for the future may be better envisioned.

Limits of the discussion

I must stress that this article does not in any way purport to be an exhaustive study of the merits of VG’s poetry or his style of verse, and that all that has been commented on the six selected poems are my conjectures made through analytical commentary of the texts and what I read into them in the background of what can be said of the poet.

There is no authority in my commentary as having deciphered the exact intentions and ideas of the poet; as is the case with any critical commentary made on any work of art or literature.

However, it must be noted that a ‘poet-politician’ is something of a rarity in these times we live in, one can say, as a reasonable statement of fact.

And in the light of how Varun Gandhi has shown his mettle through his poetry that his veins have the pulse of a poet who brings out profound thoughts and taps the inner voice of the artistic facet within him, one cannot help but wonder how much of his time will this young statesman commit in the years to come, to give more life to the artist within him?

Apart from poetry will his hand take to writing fiction, or prose and essays like his great grandfather?

What will his further contributions be to the realm of writing as he finds himself faced with decisions to make on what his time should be devoted to, as various paths emerge before him on his journey? Yes on these questions too one can conjecture and surmise. The answer however, of course is not with us, but with ‘time’.