Vihang Naik, a poet from Surat (Gujarat) is a refreshing contemporary award winning Indian poetic voice that “communicates the writing experience” through seventy two “intuitive, thoughtful, philosophical and creative” (blurb) poems collected in Poetry Manifesto (New and Selected Poems). First 28 poems are new while poems from 29 to 53 and 54 to 72 are from Making a Poem and City Times & Other Poems published from Allied Publishers’ Mumbai in 2004 and Writers’ Workshops in 1993 respectively.
On the whole, the poet is concerned with love and place particularly cities which ultimately lead to the creation and criticism of creation. The poet in Naik feels the absence of love in relationship that has become meaningless. He asks: “Is there a software / for love or a command? / Tell me / can love be / programmed” (11)? He searches for meaning “in the traffic of noises” (14) but ultimately finds the work of man full of nonsense. He cries in Hamlet-like manner: “what a piss / of work is man / stuffed with NONSENSES / you have EYES / CANNOT see (25). This is the world where a boy plays the game of ‘hide and seek’, becomes an adult and in the end is lost in a game “seeking a meaningless search” (27). He imagines “an uncertain faded point” from where trains of life begin and return after stopping at the platform which “turns into a stage of human longing, shuffling and destinations” (29).
What makes Naik different is his attitude to body that becomes a step in his quest for moksha. No doubt, “Body is moha, desired. Maya, admired” (32) and so he wishes to find his “moksha through the flesh of glazing body (33). Sex is necessary but not the ultimate aim in his quest. It may be a step that melts “a body” leaving “a dark void” (35). It is darkness that has “a flesh of its own / illumined in the eyes” (36) and make man animal. Then, both the woman and man become image covered in the darkness for “an animal with a long tongue that salivates” (45). These are the physical lived moments when “the world / shrinks within / the boundaries / of flesh” (85). But mere physical love leads nowhere. The poet persona along with the beloved realizes this fact too. Mark the end of an affair: “After our affair she discovered life / is a tale of prose. I felt love as short as haiku. / A time to part. Let us kiss and depart” (63). Searching the darkness with the desire of darkness ends in darkness that leaves “a room of mere nothingness” (94) unless a man goes deep in the darkness to wake up to see his self.
Vihang Naik is lost in the absurd city which leads him to “city within a city” and these cities lead him nowhere. Hence, he asks Lord to rescue and show “some / purpose / or / meaning” (41) otherwise he feels that the city with its people has gone “whoring / with twisted minds and uncertain ways” (116) that lead to the place where “a cosmetic girl awaits” with the hope of taming “the beast / or the heart / of man” (117) in vain.
For Vihang Naik, a poetry is an outcome of spontaneous feelings which do not care for “the why, the how / and the what of poetry” (42). His poetry manifesto which is simple and natural takes poetry not as a forced or meditative attempt rather states that poetry “must be / an unexpected thing; perhaps silly. / A nightmare or a dream / A craft, a paper art” (42). When a poem is written with the pen that slides “making a line over a sheet” (65), it seems to be the uncoiling of a snake. Words become naked and the poet needs the senses of Vishwamitra to feel the charm of Meneka. A poem is composed because of “the dance of the black ink and little light” (65). It is ink that creates image after image to make a poem that finally “injects life / in the rib of words” (73). It is the poet who wishes to “be alone amid the crowd” with the intention of flowing in the flow in order to “listen to rains or jungle drum beats” that automatically instruct the hand “to move or make a poem” (78) leaving a question whether a poet creates poetry or poetry a poet. Sometimes it happens that the poet wishes to compose a poem because of the strong feelings but as soon as he looks for “a misplaced pen”, the poem takes leave before taking a birth on the paper. A poem bewilders a critic or reader with many “wild questions: / why creation, / destruction / mukti and moksha? (47). Then, it becomes the field for a critic or a reader who attempts to create “a body out of words” and wish to “see a poem nude” but it frustrates him by becoming “the endless sari of Draupadi” (46). A potent poem, Naik believes, reveals not one meaning but “unending meanings seductively” (46).
From the technical aspects, the poet in Vihang Naik seems to be rich enough to create interest in the reader who enjoys the music as well as ponders over the thought expression. His short lines attract with images and phrases that speak themselves to the reader. Mark the lines for the picturesque imagery: “the sharp sunrise / in your eyes / yawns / to see vultures / mounted high / not too far / from the grab / of your eyes / scanning skies” (eyes 103). He tries to indianise his poetic lines by using Indian words, sometimes places like Gujrat, Ahamedabad, Ambaji, Shimla and sometimes Hindi words like moksha, moha, mukti and sometimes Hindu names like Vishwamitra, Draupadi etc. Figures like simile and metaphor also add to the poetic beauty. For instance: “Memory like candle / lights / a darkened room” (87) and “the flower / devoid of colour / and scent. / A fossilized past” (89). His use of striking phrases makes his verse aesthetic. For instance: “ the ball point of desire” (33), “Her odhani stuck to my pen” (61), “the rattle of pain” (72) and “the rain of my thought” (113). But, sometimes, he uses commonplace things which disappoint the reader. Lines like “You know me. / I know you. / Love” (40) tell a different story. Lines like “I am. I am not” three times and then “I . am / am. I / . I am” (24) seem to be a jugglery of words which fail to create philosophic interest which the poet intends. An aesthetic poet when he talks of didacticism seems strange. Lines like “There is a beast within / everymen. Know thyself” (34) is not expected from his pen....
- Dr .Sudhir K. Arora ( Associate Prof : Maharaja Harishchandra P. G. Gollege Moradabad. U.P , India )
Arora, Dr. Sudhir . Rev. of Poetry Manifesto ( New & Selected Poems ) , by Vihang A. Naik . Editors. S. C. Hajela , Rajesh B. Sharma , K. B. Gaur ; Banibrata Mahanta. Lucknow , India : Dialogue : A Journal Devoted to Literary Appreciation ( Lucknow , India ) , ( jour issue ) , December 2010 . Vol. VI., No . 1I., p.147- 149.
