Mortgaged : Reviewed by M.A.Rathore

 MORTGAGED

by Rajni Chhabra

A review of MORTGAGED by M A Rathore, famous poet and critic from Rajasthan

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Rajni Chhabra, is not a new name in the modern Indian literature; penning down her contents in her familiar style; not only thinks and feels but keeps them alive also in her unfathomable writings. She is true Indian soul though awakened yet thinking much for her family and society in which she has been living; and for the welfare of it, she even forgets her own agonies; gets chance to express her perplexed mind and heart bluntly. Her motherly affections spill over to her verses felt within deeply time to time. Her poetry is not the spontaneous flow of powerful feelings but a source of soothing effect also on her heart wrenched soul. She is a powerful voice; optimistic in nature; struggles for her self awakening spirit; first as a daughter, a wife and then as an undaunted typical Indian mother for her own kids. She keeps maintained her social values though

"Confined to a dingy corner of house

Like extra, obsolete furniture,

With whom to share

Agony of restless mind"

Yet she thinks for her kids that they will flourish in an earthly atmosphere not being attached too much. While bringing them up she cares her daughter as a typical mother at the age of

"When mind longs for

Gathering stars in lap

And all merry colours of

Spring of life

Absorbed in rainbow dreams

Ignores realities of life"

She instructs her growing daughter not to soar high like a kite and fly like a butterfly but to maintain order through her youthful gleams and she prays God to protect her from windy times; embracing her deep happiness and soaring high her aspirations.

In her poem, GYPSY MIND she hopes for her golden moments never to an end. She yearns,

"We secretly

Cherish a wish,

Let this journey

Never accomplish"

She longs for not to be awakened in dream if her dream is a longing for her departed spouse. She expresses her deep sorrows as a metamodernist in her poem BUDS AND BLOSSOMS that the buds are

"Unfamiliar with

Touch of strong winds,

When entangled

In a big storm,

Can you guess?

Her agony,

Her bewilderment"

She thinks over metaphorically as T.S.Eliot has expressed in his modern epic THE WASTELAND saying that the buds are crushed in a shameful manner. She says,

"As long as

Repetition of the story of

Forbidden fruit

By Adam and Eve

Will continue,

Modern generations

Will keep on

Stepping further

On the ladder of brutality"

Living in an urban city now, she longs for dwelling in her native soul; dancing in thickets. Her nostalgic remembrances make her feel at home when she expresses them in her poems. In this man-dominated society, she has been living under "so many storms, so many thunders, and making mind so restless" but in all adverse circumstances, her late beloved husband serves her power to live "like a lighthouse amidst sea."

Whenever she feels suffocated that has ancestrally been lodged with her accumulated agonies turning into wounds,, she yearns for to have been embalmed with sympathy and shedding it miles away, filling up her life with nectar of affection. She is satisfied with what she has in her store. Though life; in its variegated colours, seems to slip away from her hands; invites her to lead it but

"Suddenly, I visualize

A particle of sand

Stuck in the midst of my palm"

(FROM OCEAN OF SAND)

As an optimistic soul, she hopes for the better moments of her life still to be spent with her kids.

She was very happy in the company of her husband while swaying with him on the bank of oceanic love and limitless joys, but now all has changed in the merciless journey of time. She visualizes that

" Ocean is same

Same is dark ,dense eve

Waves of sea are still,

Surface seems to be sleepy."

(EXPENSE)

She makes herself sound saying that shedding tears has no use instead it is better to wage a war against the situation so provided to her life. She says

"If shedding tears

Could be solution of

Every anguish,

Tears would

Never extinct

These moist eyes." (MOIST EYES)

She says she can argue against all those who think woman is weak in all respects but she is a mum. She has to measure some heights for her kids. She has to survive for her family and especially for her kids. Her anguish knows no bounds. Time heals all wounds but her pains have no beginning and no end. Getting fresh of her old sorrows and wounds is spring of her life. Instead of all her pangs, she hopes for a dream 'a patch' at least for her torn heart is sufficient for her existence. (To be continued..)

-M.A.Rathore

(c) 28/05/2016