Life is like balancing on a tightrope stretching between happiness and sadness.

While we are able to make the best of happy days, it is the depressed feeling that pulls us down.

When we feel depressed, we do not feel like working, we lose interest in our surroundings.

Since ancient times, poetry has been a great solace to the sad soul, allowing many to express their feelings, their thoughts and experiences of the sorrow and grief.

Poet Kushwaha too chose poetry as the medium for creatively describing various moments from life, experiences laden with grief and tears.

His Hindi collection of poems, ‘Ashrupirit Nayan’, contains multiple poems dealing with various aspects, different facets of life which we can relate to.

The poet has showcased that life is not only about the happy moments, it includes the worst phases also, which no one likes to express probably, but we are all aware of their presence in our lives.

All the poems are short and written in the purest form of Hindi language which is sure to mesmerise you.

Although the basic theme is grief, the underlying meaning of the poems may tell you a different story altogether and it depends on the readers how they wish to analyse the poems.

That’s the beauty of poetry which Kushwaha has successfully projected in front of the readers.

In case of a few poems, the meanings of a few words are also given, so if you are not an avid reader of Hindi literature, you can still understand the meaning of each line and you can surely extract the happiness of poetry-reading out of it.

The poems are written in such a way that it will push you to read not once but twice or more.

Whether you are a poetry lover or not, Ashrupirit Nayan is definitely one of the best books for you.

(Reviewed by Sayantani Sengupta)