The blooming of a bud
In a fragrant flower
Is what amazes me
As I trod along my own garden of scented memories
The unseen world within me opens with love
To see the seasonal bud blooming
As the most beautiful, colourful flower
Waving me, swaying, whispering to me
“I am the immortal fragrance
And shall wrap you whenever you hum
A poem in the praise of Lord, The Astral Song!”-Devi
Everyday as a new page of life turns itself, it has a new lesson for us, and a wider scope for us to explore and attain our wants and wishes in life. Age is no bond or obstruction to the receptivity to learn and reproduce. Here is a quote:
You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough. ~Erica Jong
And here is a young seventeen-year-old Stuti Sharma with the Poetry book “The Astral Song” to her credit, a soft furry feather in her cap. She dedicates it to her late great grandfather Baba, further acknowledging with gratitude her well-wisher family, friends who gave her courage and strength to attain the goal she longed for.
Poetry is the celestial ever flowing fountain of thoughts that she as a sculpture, has chisled with utter fineess and given an artistic shape of her dreams, contradicting the quote above, but much relevant to the expression by the same author here expressing his second view point:
“What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you’re a poet. But there isn’t one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn’t any formula for it.” ~Erica Jong
How true as I read this quote and dive deep in the memory lane of my own poetic journey almost back in 2006 when I had the passion to learn to write Ghazal and acquired first hand help and guidance from my Guru shri. R.P. Sharma, who was honoured as “Pingalacharya” for his affirmed name and fame in the field of Ghazal. My three ghazal books have been dedicated to him my Guru, and here I see Stuti Sharma acknowledging her reverence by dedicating “The Astral Song” to her great grandfather BABA.
In a true sense it was then during my visits to the Sharama’s Home in Dadar, Mumbai, that I used to see little Stuti Sharma who was a beautiful bud of five years. She would come, stand by me during my class of poetry with her Baba, sometimes showing me her art work of her class, at times showing her inclination to recite a poem for me. She had recited a beautiful poem couple times, about a butterfly (2008) and also a Cock-a-doddle-doo-doo Murga(2007). I had asked her to write the poems for me which later on my return to new Jersey I had put on my blog SAHIL-RETI as in here
http://sahilreti.blogspot.com/2007/
http://sahilreti.blogspot.com/2008/
‘एक मुर्गा चश्मे दीदम
एक मुर्गा चश्मे दीदम
चलते चलते थक गया
लाओ चाकू काटो गर्दन
फिर भी वो चलने लगा- कलमकारःस्तुति शर्मा
श्री आर. पी शर्मा जी की पर पोती। दादर मंबई
A cock glasses Didm
walking tired
Bring knife cut neck
was still they walk-
Kalmkar-shuti Sharma,
RK. Granddaughter of P. Sharma ji. Dadar Mumbai
It is now that it dawns to me that:
Reality and fantasy, Darkness and Light
These paint the canvases of life
Making it more colorful and brighter than sunlight.
It is a pleasant surprise during this Christmas Eve to have a gift of her poetry book “The Astral Song” with bountiful radiating words and jingling murmurs of her words as Christmas carols, ringing and resounding in my ears taking me back to the memory lane that is underlined in my heart’s core. It is witnessing the truth of the reality unfolding itself in front of me to see a beautiful butterfly emerging from the Cocoon in nearly ten years.
At the outset of her poem “A Lady” she writes the fascinating expression of her true self, which I imagine now with the deep expressive dimples and mischievous smile tinkling in her eyes. P-51
“I am a girl, I Cry, I laugh, I love, I hate
I Dream Big Dreams and say big words.”
How beautiful truth can be, lies in the underlying meaning of this statement as I have seen her grow, showing me her sketches, her new writings everytime I visit the Sharma’s. For me it is like a family that wraps me with all warmth and affection.
Introducing herself with aura of confidence and presenting a collection of 25 poems, she starts:
“I can’t remember the time when I didn’t write poetry.” Some poems as I read personify her as a different personality and her words surpass my intelligence to understand the theme of her magical thoughts. The creative ideas, constructive criticism of herself while presenting them and the constant ever-flowing fountain of words that makes a crystal collage of rippling water drops from her pen.
Stuti’s landscape of expression goes far beyond imagination as she writes in her poem “Galaxies” P-47
“I got galaxies in my eyes,
And they’re not yours to define or explore…
…I got galaxies in my eyes because
I aimed for them.”
Towards the end of the poem she announces claiming her possession with confidence
“May be I got galaxies in my eyes because
I’m the universe myself”
WOW, truly amazingly beautiful expression of herself, in words that can’t be defined further. She’s right in standing for her word as she wrote when she was a bud and now a blossomed flower. The little girl today is a fully matured young Lady Writer who can reproduce her thoughts with transparency and excellence that bring a glow of appreciation in my eyes.
In her poem “Rebirth” she affirmatively writes
The dawn of desire
The dayspring of delight
The afternoon of anticipation
The evening of equanimity
The sunset of serenity
The twilight of terror
The night of naivety
And the Darkness of doubt….”
Magnificently she phrases the thoughts ‘the darkness of doubt’
Her emotions with a conflict of bittersweet mingled taste of life.
Like a picture painted on the horizon with rainbow colors, she, has moulded her own personality with the artistic hand of a sculpture, carving to the finest core of the hardened rock to replicate tenderness and beauty. Furthermore, the budding author confidently says in “Sunflower”
“I seize every opportunity and
Let it tickle every part of me physical and mental”-55
She has the art of exploring herself to the core of all inward and outward dimensions with all possibilities to be an artist of the unknown expression.
In her poem named “Flight” she is pouring her feelings that make her dreams to be reality of her life.
“The wind whirls me up, breathes me into flight
The choice to be a dove is mine…. …..Even though the flight was my purpose
If I am destined to Cascade, then in that I will thrive
And make sure, that last fall is the most fulfilling Journey of my life.”
Once determined to start your journey Inward and associate with the absent, there is nothing on the outside that can disturb your peace and deviate one from the achievement. Her words are really mystic in the process of exploring one’s own self.
“Peep into your Mystic thoughts
Your aura is Edenic…..
….You’re heaven
It’s time to start worshiping yourself. .
The realization in words is a thoughtful connection with self which is really beyond time and space.
I admire the output of The Voice with inner meaning connecting to the outer world of her dreams and I wish Stuti Sharma to proceed forward and find her place of perfection on this Dias of challenges in the world of wishes.
God Bless You,
Devi Nangrani
Book-The Astral song, Author-Stuti sharma, pages: 60, Publisher:Story mirror infotech Pvt.Ltd, 145, First Floor, Powai Palza, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai-400076, India
Devi Nangrani, born in Karachi (India then), is an author of many Sindhi, Hindi & English books. Retired as a teacher, she writes poetry, ghazals, stories, articles, reviews, lyrics on social issues and challenges. A well-travelled scholar of Global Literary Society, she regularly participates in various conferences, seminars and workshops, nationally and internationally and has been honored and awarded in Mumbai, Kerala, Sagar, Delhi, Chenai, New York, New Jersey and Oslo. She is also a proud recipient of the Dr. Amrita Preetam Award and the Meer Ali Meer Puruskaar from Madhya Pradesh Prachar Sabha. For Sindhi she has been awarded by NCPSL in 2007, and Maharashtra Rajya Sindhi Sahitya Academy in 2019. Her unique work of translation of stories from Sindhi to Hindi is compiled in ten books, which can be now heard on YouTube/ https://nangranidevi.blogspot.com/
dnangrani@gmail.com