A Short Review of Charan Singh's book

 Dr Charan Singh Kedarkhandi recently shared with me his maiden collection, DANCING WITH THE MOON & OTHER POEMS, published by Sri Aurobindo Study Centre, Joshimath, as a "token of love from Uttarakhand." He interests me because, like me,  he too wrote his doctoral dissertation on Sri Aurobindo's massive epic, SAVITRI, which seems to colour his spiritual imagination, though with a different emotional and sentimental poetic idealism, as I sense from his 12-page 'search' for a definition of poetry, preceding his 80 poems. 

At the core of his creativity lies --irrespective of abrupt breaks in thought, underdeveloped imagery, moralistic and didactic tone, and various allusions-- awareness of perennial issues like who we are and the constant tussle between inner and outer, and individual and social. His sensemaking ability of the contemporary reality, threading together fragmentary experiences of fatedness, is appreciable. He makes forceful statements: For example,

"In the forest of Life/I witness/deafening silence everywhere" ;

"Money has purchased humanity" ;

"Our swagger and suicidal hubris/shall swallow everything" ;

"I wish to sow love/everywhere/Remove hatred like sunshine" ; etc

 He depicts the dance of hopelessness everywhere, but keeps his faith intact. The spiritual in him asserts: "Those who understand the/sound of silence/can never misunderstand/the silence of sounds."

The 124-page book is nicely got-up, neatly printed, and highly readable and thought-provoking. It adds to the rich variety of contemporary Indian English Poetry. 

--Professor R K Singh