· This is my fifth book. I have chosen two genres to express myself that are drama and poetry. As poetry, this is my second book, and it has come after more than one decade. Some 11 years back, my poetry book was published. The Death in a Rose Ashtray is an anthology of the selected poems written in last one decade.Throwing the warm blanket
that had covered our beautiful winter dreams
we got up hurriedly
and stepped out of our room to check what we heard about
We looked up and saw only the black clouds
no moon and no stars,
no lights and nothing visible
Virtually, we lost our sky in midnight.
(Sleep Walking, 79)
· Death in a Rose Ashtray, the title poem speaks about the absurdities of life and realizes the unavoidable presence of death. It’s an artistic composition of diverse concepts. I have tried to create a unique image blending various images. Rose symbolizes beauty; ashtray represents ashes, and death is an end to the life.
· 35 poems of this collection can be mainly categorized into three themes – life, love and death. Most of the poems that belong to life talk about the absurdities. The poems under this category also incorporate the social issues.
· Poem under the theme of love are pure and perfect. Mostly, I am trying to expose the aesthetic as well as external beauty of women. At the same time, I am also trying to show how love has ruined the life. (Sparsh, 74)
· Death is mostly matured and universal theme. I believe that the death is an evergreen theme for poetry. Death was in the past, exists in the present and will remain in the same form in future. Poems written on death theme will never be old. Death is eternal.
Those scared from the death,
Are scared from the truth
Truth means only the death
Truth means only the void.
(Death, 34)
· Few of the poems from this anthology bear the qualities of post-modernity. Leaving space to create multiple meaning for the same poem, I have experimented postmodernism in my poems.
