Keki N Daruwalla: The Poet and Novelist

KEKI N. DARUWALLA: THE POET AND NOVELIST by ASHA VISWAS. New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 2011. 173 pp., Rs. 500/-, ISBN 978-81-909771-3-5

Keki N. Daruwalla, who has been writing for more than 4 decades these days, is a top name in Indian English poetry right now (p 31). The uniqueness of his verses has been recognized by critics and admirers everywhere. There have been quite a few books on his poetry, each original and edited, discussing imagery, diction, design and style, and perspective, but the most up-to-date one particular by Asha Viswas, committed to her students, should really be very valuable to students and teachers alike.

Professor Viswas, herself a superior poet with 3 volumes of poetry to her credit, treats Daruwalla on the similar pedestal as Nissim Ezekiel and Jayanta Mahapatra, and finds him a much more representative voice than Jayanta Mahapatra and other folks. I completely agree with her.

Asha considers all the nine volumes of poetry and 1 novel by Keki and appreciates the wide variety he demonstrates each in kind and content material (p 34). She also discovers that Keki writes with handle more than feelings and correctly makes use of procedures such as word play, irony and satire (pp 75-76). She reflects on the poet's significant thematic canvas which inheres his private experiences as too his preoccupation with the normally contradictory realities of Indian life, diverse cultural, historic and mythic landscape, and existential realities. To quote Bruce King, Keki Daruwalla writes challenging poetry with awareness of the "moral ambiguities and unresolvable conflicts of the human situation."

Professsor Viswas's introductory chapter seeks to define and highlight modernity and Indianness of Keki, apart from his "depth of feeling, economy of language, and originality of insight" (cf pp 13-17) that confers on him "a central spot in modern Indian English poetry."

In the second chapter, 'Moorings', she scrutinizes the poet's individual life vis-à-vis the development of his poetic profession from 1960s. She draws on her individual interview with the poet to develop the chapter in addition to reviewing the critiques of all his collections, two books of brief stories, 1 novel, and a single anthology, Two Decades of Indian Poetry: 1960-80. She underlines the poet's international viewpoint, experiences and interests.

In the third chapter, 'Treatment of Myth in Keki's Early Poetry,' she refers to his mythical poems (5 in Under Orion, 4 in Apparition in April, thirteen in Crossing of Rivers) to demonstrate the poet's looking thoughts, mythopoeic attitude, and eclectic vision. Professor Viswas too utilizes the methods of stylistic evaluation to interpret some of the early poems of Keki.

The fourth chapter seeks to highlight the poet's modernity, realism, non-moral method, existential issues, lack of faith in the method, and avoidance of "stock response" and "abstract notion". She observes: "His satire and his iconoclastic strategy invigorate his topic matter as does the speed of his verse and masculine vigour." (p 76)

The poet-critic's discussion on the poems in Landscape (ch. 5) aims at demonstrating Keki's "maturity of vision" that transmutes the "external globe into internal consciousness" (p 78) and assists him attain inner peace (p 81). Asha Viswas finds in the collection a "excellent harmony among impression and expression" a la Sanskrit poets (p 90).

The sixth chapter is a critique of A Summer time of Tigers which gives situations of passion and irony (pp 94-98). With her abilities in stylistic evaluation, Asha Viswas tries to highlight the poet's "exploration and experimentation" (pp 95, 104) and his sensitivity for "speech rhythms and their syntactic and lexical functions" (pp 98, 114) on the 1 hand, and his really like for mythology and "racial history" (pp 99, 102, 111) and his criticism of Pablo Neruda (pp 110-11), on the other. As she notes: "His ideal poetry is about the mountains, high pastures, seas and rivers. It is his rootedness to the ritual scene that delivers Keki a shot in the poetic vein." (p 112)

The seventh chapter offers with Evening River, a "worldwide function" (p 116). Although the poet's search for permanence in Landscapes brings him to the planet of nature, in Evening River he "modifications his route from nature to human imagination" (p 115). Here Asha Viswas finds Keki Orpheus-like and descending into "the darker depths of what we get in touch with the subconscious and unconscious." She appears suitable as Daruwalla himself admits that here he has attempted to dive into the "depths of consciousness and solitude" (p 117) which is, in truth, "a defence against time, decay, and even death" (p 127). She too discusses some of his dream-poems (pp 118-121) and island-poems (pp 125-26) in the volume.

The eighth chapter issues Keki's ninth collection, The Map Maker, recording his voyage "each inside and without the need of." Here one particular finds situations of the "subjective and physical, personal and universal merging into... (an) integrated consciousness" (p 128). Asha praises his craftsmanship in melding history, peoples, nature, religion, biography, and vision into "intense reflection" and poetry "that speaks out of the nevertheless centre of the getting, the narrative and the dramatic voice" (p 159). Her analytical comments on pp 140-158 ought to assistance every really serious student comply with the poetry of Daruwalla in the suitable spirit.

The last chapter discusses Daruwalla's historical novel For Pepper and Christ (2009) which "provides a dialectical discourse of clashing interests in the backdrop of trade and religion (p 161).

The bibliography at the end testifies to the years of labour Professor Viswas has place in to write the book, maintaining in thoughts the requires of students each at the Honours and Postgraduate level, and researchers and teachers interested in Indian English writing. It is a constructive contribution from a poet-professor who views Keki N. Daruwalla with really serious empathy and imagination.

Professor R.K. Singh, Head, Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian College of Mines, Dhanbad 826004, Jharkhand