Book Review of Amol Redij's 69 The Otherwise Poetry

Redij, Amol. 69 The Otherwise Poetry. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2014. ISBN 978-81-8253-53-1. Pages 78,205.00.

Reviewer: Dr. Shamenaz, Associate Professor (English), Dept. of Applied Sciences & Humanities, Allahabad Institute of Engineering & Technology, Allahabad.

After the publication of his debut poetry collection, ‘Silent Moments of Melancholy’, ‘69 The Otherwise Poetry’ is the second poetry collection of Amol Redij, who is an IT Professional from Pune. His works has been published in many national and international poetry magazines. Not only a poet, Amol writes plots for short films, he is also a theatre enthusiast, a key activist for Orchestrated Q ‘Works, which is a Pune based English Theatre Company.

         The ‘69 The Otherwise Poetry’ is a unique poetry collection which in entirely different from his previous book. It is a collection of 69 poems woven perceptively romanticising a relationship between two lovers. The very first poem, ‘Heaven’ is a very short poem based on love. Though being short it is highly emotional and symbolical. As the poet says:

                             Loving you

                             Is perhaps a sin

                             Yet it feels like heaven

This theme of love is carried on in the next poem, ‘Me’ and so on in many other poems.There are many poem based on sensuousness of human nature like ‘Past Perfect’, ‘In Middle of the Night’, ‘Kissed’, ‘First Night’, ‘Prohibited Fealty’, ‘Hazard’, ‘Love Making Mania’, ‘Excavation’, ‘Lechery’, ‘Corners’, ‘Jumbled’, ‘Failure.’ But there are some mystical poems viz ‘Divinity’, ‘Salvation’, ‘Cosmic Lust’, ‘Love Baking’and ‘Tandav.’ While there are some poems which are very symbolical in meaning like ‘Distance’, ‘Coal Mine’, ‘The Recipe’, ‘Delicacy’, ‘Hol(e)yNess’, Premature, ‘Heat’, ‘Nightmare’ and ‘War Within.’

Many poets are being inspired by the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, this traits can be seen in Amol Redij’s poetry also as some poems are metaphysical in nature viz ‘Love Making Mania’, ‘Objects of Desire’and ‘My Magnetic Needle’ while in some poems there is craving, eagerness to meet the beloved like in ‘Once More!’, and ‘Playing on Her.’

        Poems like ‘Wine Pastures’, ‘Demonic Seraphim’, ‘Vasectomy’ and ‘Yours Accidently’ are in a form of short ballad dealing with the stories of animals. There are many poems which have a sad tone; ‘Turmoil’, ‘Oh Merciful’, ‘Woe’, ‘Spirited’, ‘Emptiness’, ‘Untuned’, ‘RIP’ etc while ‘Adam’ is Biblical in nature.

      There was a time when poets’ mostly belonging to romantic age tried to use various natural symbols in their poetic creation but now time has changed. In the present collection Poet has used various symbols some natural like, ‘sky’, ‘earth’, ‘grass’, ‘soil’, stars’, ‘moon’, galaxy’ and some physical like ‘cock, ‘cloth pile’, ‘bathtub’, ‘washing machine’, ‘chair’, ‘table’, ‘bed’, ‘pillow’, ‘mattress’ etc. The poem, ‘Etched’ has a very different and unique style as the lines indicate:

                               Ditched souls

                               Bewitched me

                               Enriched you

                               Pitched whispers

                               Snitched fragrances

The poet has carried the theme of love throughout the collection but basically they are reflecting more of lust than love. The title of the book is unique in its own way and it also reflects the number of poem in the collection which is very different. The collection reflects the increasing modernism in the poetic creation.