Kavitanjali through the eyes of Lakhan Mehrotra

by Gwen Herat

Revolution
Shoals rising from
the Earth,
And setting aflame
The hearts of men
Where for centuries
together
Layer over layer
Has gathered the
ammunition dry
Awaiting a single spark.
At one layer
lay treasured
The sad story
of a helpess dame
thrown afar by the
society
Into a drain.
Where her shatterd soul
Her salvation had found

By laying waste.

What did Lakhan Mehrotra mean? The hopelessness of a world as it stands and how it gathered steam to let its inhabitants go crazy in disarray.

The poet's prose is neatly packed into a 74-page book and what is unique is that his lyrical verses are translated in Hindi parallaly which makes the book both English and Hindi, reachable to those who are equally proficiant in both language. He is a nature writer no doubt. His ardour is evidently displayed in all the verses written in very simple language.

Being a highly placed academic from the Allahabad Uni. With a Master's degree in Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Mehrotra has grabbed a bit of philosophy when he describes the frailties of life.

In the corrdoors of life,
At every step have I seen
The dance of man's
scorched frame
Of the shadows of
skeltons'....

Beauty of nature

We all are aware that poets and writers have endevoured to capture the beauty of nature as they see it, one different to the other but with their imagination and sensibilities. Yet the everlasting beauty and hidden mysteries of nature though inspiring and provoking, still remain a challenge to all writers.

In Kavitanjali, Mehrotra takes us on a pleasant trip to achieve harmony through their relationship inspite of the onslaught of materialism of the modern era.

He has revealed through simple lines the beauty of spirit not only in nature but in man too.

His writing clearly reflects the spiritual urge and quest that can be applied to metaphysical erudition and mystical insight mainly to nature.

I find the beauty of his writings as subjective and not objective that we all writers must understand and inculcate in our writing too because as we go by, there is a lot to learn from our fellow writers.

Let's take a look at a few lines and the philosophy behind them.

The rocks

Their hearts both stone and water are
stone when they viewed by stony eyes
water when viewed by eyes moist’ (from The Rocks)

They belong to the spirit of man and can be enjoyed by spiritual vision which I have experienced. He has laid his rare poetic flavour in an contemplative order alongside his beloved Hindi.

The odyssey of a drop

A drop, burnt by the fury of the scorching sun rose from the heart of the sea. Heaps of pain coverted into vapour-molecules.

Set aside their sighs in the innards of the sea. And turning their face moved apace. Towards the firmament of their dreams towards hope'....

The poet reveals the power of a single drop raised from the mighty sea in cloak of clouds, in the vastness of the skies up to the horizon, dashing against the snow old mountains to reveal the power of a drop of water.

How many of us realise its impact?

The waterfall

Carrying a tormented heart's errand, Jhar-jhar drops the waterfall. Music of whose sighs is this streams of whose tears, where's the maiden in whose tremulous lips, got broken this song of love.

The rhythmic echoes of the pangs of separation, rising from the innermost crevices of heart, whose life's saga does this fountain sing in such hacked and broken forms... (from Waterfall)

In this stanza which I have phrased together to produce the anguish of a maiden which seen from outside, is quite irrelevant to the subject-title but Mehrotra rises to incredible beights to compare the heart of a maiden to the water drops of Jhar-jhar to the innermost crevices of her heart whoever she may be.

She gets emotionally choked, this frightened dame in flight. He fails to describe her beauty rather than her tremulous lips, chanting Lord Rama's name.

Most of his writings remain mysterious which is the attraction in Kavitanjali.

Lakhan Mehrotra was born (1934) in Ramnagar, U.P., India and majored in Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology from Allahabad University thus wrapping up his Master's degree.

In addition to Hindi and English, he is proficient in Russian, Spanish, Sanskrit and Tibetan which makes him quiet a linguist.

As an Indian foreign service officer, he rose to be the High Commissioner for India in Sri Lanka after an illustrious career around the world in countries such as the US, USSR and China.

He also served as Charge d'Affaires in Mexico and Argentina as well as Yugoslavia.