Book Review: MANDALAS OF TIME poems by Malashri Lal

Review by: Satbir Chadha

HAWAKAL PUBLISHERS

Malashri Lal

Year of publication: 2023

ISBN 13 978-9391431990 ISBN 10 9391431992

The book has a beautiful cover indicative of the journey the poet is about to take you on. As I turn the pages the dedication saying “for the poets under the Pilkhan tree” brings a smile on my face, and I think of a group of merry friends rhyming and chatting in the lap of nature. I read the poem “Another New Year” which says: 

“Pilkhan is tired of hearing

Scandal, gossip, jokes

Of the young 

The worries and health bulletins of the old

The strategic plan of family and builders

Of knocking down the old house

For commercial profit”

The Pilkhan is glaring at urban reality, so subtly the poet makes the mark.

The first poem “ARDHNAREESVARA” made me bow my head to the profound ancient philosophy, as in the present context it is a claim to universally of the human, beyond masculine and feminine to eternal equality. 

“In creation there is only one 

Ardhanareeswara 

The God who is both woman and man

Ubiquitous, limitless reminder of equality”.

This is a book of lilting soft and subtle verses, layered with powerful social comment and concerns, also sighs when talking of centuries of misogyny. Several poems are structured around history and mythology with some dedicated to strong mythological characters like Manthara, Radha and Sita with their enduring qualities of fairness and righteousness, as in “Sita’s Rasoi” Malashri writes, 

“Rotis dance into shape

Flat, brown edged, uneven rounds

Take one each

Little Bakha, you too.

Be sure it’s an equal share

Not a morsel must

Exceed anyone’s due”.

“DREAMING OF MA BY THE SEA” really touched me, as did poems like “SILVER CLUB” and “GERIATRIC PARADISE” that talk of the plight of our elders searching in vain for their progeny who have grown wings and flown away, 

“The mellow sun warms her feet

While she imagines 

Grandchildren

Speaking in accents strange

Young ones she has hardly seen

Except in photographs “

History is so integral in this volume, I saw, as in the poem “RANI PADMINI TODAY” Malashri says one should judge history in the context of society and politics of the time and not today’s values, I quote,

“Today Padmini’s sacrifice

Is frowned upon as wrong

I ask you if you can rewrite

Values the past held strong?”

History again peeps through “Hawa Mahal” and you almost see 

“A princess in royal blue

The colour of Diwali

Peers through the shadows

Looking eagerly at the carriages below

Thirsting for a paramour”

while the passages enthral you with powerful imagery.

Duality and multiplicity are a part of life, one struggles with them and is troubled by them, as we see in many of these poems, and gradually one comes to terms with them, and identifies with them too, as Malashri deals with it in her poem “The Rivers”, 

“The sacred confluence of rivers

Dark Bhagirathi

Born of women through union unnameable

Sprightly Alaknanda

Dancing blue and transparent

You mingle at Devprayag 

We foolishly think waters lose their identity in unison”

I quote from the poem “To Rabindranath Tagore” to make the point again as she writes, “Among the sands of a desert state

I heard and read your poems

Gurudev, distant yet close, familiar yet alien

While I struggled with my 

Identity flitting between Rajasthan and Bengal 

Unable to claim either 

Unable to let go

The language and legacy 

Of my ancestors in

Shantiniketan.

Then I learnt from Gurudev

Emotions have no fixed language

The mind has no physical limits

Music resounds in the open sky 

Dance is the joy of a free spirit anywhere.”

My learning from this collection is that a skilled poet can say what she wants to and much more in a few crisp and concise lines, that make the read a pleasure and an exercise in thought, all texts condensed yet clear. 

I congratulate Malashri Lal for writing this exquisite poetry and the editors for the taut editing and lovely structure.

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Setu, October 2023