Mitra

Saumitra's collection of poems 'Mitra' is such a call reverberating in the interludes of memory in which salutations and relations have merged. For Saumitra, time is a gallery filled with vibrant imagery. The words coming and going in this gallery are inundated with the unique brilliance of meanings. 'Chidiya' or 'bird' is the seed word of many poems of Saumitra, from which he has revealed the formulations of life, irony, and destiny. Saumitra, encountering the evident, explores some of the profound questions of existence in such a way that the meaning of an individual's existence suddenly acquires broader connotations. Saumitra has been able to identify a disquiet soul and subdued sensitivity in his poetry-which is noteworthy.

A remarkable feature of the poems of 'Mitra' is their fluidity and simplicity. Sometimes they open so intimately that they feel weightless alike poetic fragrance. The silent cry of physical, ideological, and cultural displacement can also be read here. Among all these 'diverging circles' are the units of relationship from which life is constructed. It must be said that Saumitra is deeply immersed in life, and those vibes are all but evident.

If we examine this collection of poems with contemporary Hindi poems, it will be clear that there is no extra dread of intellectualism here. There is a rare humility in Saumitra which also determines the form of these poems. The poems of 'Mitra' are rich in communicativeness due to the simple language, the craft reaching the limit of craftlessness, and unique informality. Awarded the Navlekhan Award of Bharatiya Jnanpith, 'Mitra' is a meaningful intervention in the contemporary poetry of Hindi.