Memories of Silence: Book Review by Binay Laha

Memories of Silence

Binay Laha reviews poetry by Rudra Kinshuk 

 

 

Rudra Kinshuk’s poems in “Memories of Silence” are the blend of human relationships with the fellow men and with nature, at large. He can hammer the silence and can feel the cry of the inner soul. He is very subtle, poignant and profound in his expression. He defines “Silence explodes within the wombs of our infertile women.”

 

Rudra prays to the nature or to the almighty for making crops milky. He wished women to remain more fertile every year in his very first poem “Horse Anecdote.” In the present world, fertility of thought with positivity is itself in crisis. He focuses the miracles of Dinarshahi Pir. He surrenders his stories to Dinarshahi Pir, silently where he finds the citrus grove melts into the air like a mystic song of Lalan Fakir. Lalan Fakir must have captivated Rudra through his song and vision. We find another poem “Birds in the songs of Lalan Fakir” where Rudra Kingshuk finds Birds in the songs of Lalan Fakir are blindfolded. His comparison of thoughts shows his mastery thinking so critically like a passionate poet who forget the mundane reality while in poetry.

 

Rudra cannot concentrate into a single thing and theme. His poems are much centrifugal. The weaving of his words are like the making of a nest by a laborious Babui. He finds muse to be a very silent existence whose footprints are the whispers of eternity in his poem “Meditation on Muse.” He is invoking the muse- When death ravages everywhere /I wait for your ethereal fragrance/for a glimpse of that proverbial rose /a lighthouse in this perennial darkness. Rudra rightly knocked the roses as rose is celebrated everywhere in the poem like a proverb since William Shakespeare or before.

 

In this book, the common proverb is silence. He finds silences. He doesn’t not run for the crowd. He doesn’t not run to become a name. He loves to observe the human nature, in a very praying position. In his poem for the Distant star, he gets a Dhimal boy in his tour, “Dhimal, the boy speaks music to me in this small village of North Bengal.” He had studied the Dhimal race, a very rare and minor secluded group of North Bengal. Hardly two thousand Dhimal live on Earth. Rudra might not know of this fact but he discovers their silent existence. Rudra’s simple heart is itself a poetic voice who will listen softly to the voiceless. It is indeed a charming experience, as a reader, to go through all sixty-four poems at a single breath, metaphorically. Kudos to Rudra Kingshuk for his Memories of Silence. Kudos to Penprints for such nice endeavor and gifting us wonderful ballads of silences.

 

Memories of Silence

Poet-Rudra Kinshuk

Publisher -Penprints, Kolkata

First Edition :2023

Price :250

Total Pages :87

Reviewer -Binay Laha

 

Poet: Rudra Kinshuk

 

Book Reviewer, poet and author Binay Laha

 

 

(The reviewer is the editor of Indology Magazine. He may be reached at [email protected])