Buddha and Biryani: poems - Paperback

by Ra Sh (Author)

• Here is a collection of poems that mostly deromanticize the world through irony and black humour. The poet distances himself from what he sees to make his observation sharper and clearer. Ra Sh finds poetry in everything from microbes to machines and mountains. There are moments of silent anguish as when the poet remembers his mother though he never waxes sentimental as most poets do on such occasions. I have seldom seen poets using repetition so skilfully, each refrain adding weight to the earlier one as in the opening poems - "Silent Farewells," "Last Global Warning," and "Why is this Damn River in a Hurry," "A List of Signboards the Flood Left Behind" are fine examples of Ra Sh's kind of sarcasm. While you expect a poem on evanescence, he gives you a poem on our cherished vanities and beliefs that the flood refuses to recognize. "Buddha and Biriyani," the title poem, is about desire - the desire for good food - that even the Buddha's dispassion fails to conquer. Gods, ghosts, ghouls, black magicians, and mythological characters parade these poems with ease as they are shorn of their loads of men's faith in them, and even sex turns into a tantalizing, even cannibalistic, ritual. - K. Satchidanandan
• After his anti-fascist political clarity in The Bullet Train, total sublimation in the love of the body and not the spirit in Kintsugi by Hadni, and revival of the romance in In The Mirror, Our Graves, Ra Sh is back to his elements in an omnibus collection of fresh poems dealing with life, love, memories, patriarchal subjugation, survival tactics, retaliation, occult revenge, women's counter attack, etc. Each poem carries layers of a unique perception of our world. - Leena Manimekalai (poet and film director)