Awadesh Saxena’s new book “Akele Safar Mein” is a collection of Ghazals that fit into the current times, reflecting a ray of hope from the promised notions of the past. The ghazals in the book focus on life struggles, unfulfilled desires of different individuals, romance, heartbreak and pain. The motif of these poems underline the same concept of suffering. When there is light, there is darkness and these ghazals bring out the darkness in the nook and corner of different things we collectively go through as a part of our lives.
Ghazals inherently are from the East and are mostly written in Persian. But the poets of the current age have dived into writing Ghazals in their own languages. Akele Safar Mein is a collection of ghazals written in Hindi and also incorporates Hindustani words that make it unique and fits into the Indian context of literature and poetry.
Literature is the way we live our lives and the way we aspire to live. Poetry is an expression of such things. Awadesh Saxena, the author of this book believes that his collection of ghazals reiterate this idea of bringing back things that existed in the past and use it as a medium of expression to show how we live today. Though ghazals originated in the 7th century and lasted long after that with the influence of Sufi poetry, Akele Safr Mein retains the essence of 7th century ghazals and revives its nature. The book is a reflection of how the poet was moved by the pain, loss and suffering of the common folk. We experience pain in every stage of life and there’s so little space for us to expand it. While this is the case, Akele Safar Mein stretches the horizon for us to fit our miseries into. The boundaries are broken and a new space is born. The kind of emotions that evoke readers when they come in contact with the deep messages these ghazals try to convey is that of their own. The readers will experience their past memories and painful, traumatic events that brought them to the place they are in. Every individual has their own individual problems and while we now talk about the importance of mental health, self-reflection is a part of it. These poems mirror one’s sufferings and invokes in them emotions that lie in their unconscious. When we investigate why the poet has chosen the ghazal form of poetry, it is because there are so many things expressed through little words. Sometimes small things make a great difference and these small poetic lines will definitely create a huge impact in the way readers view their lives.
