Ek Cheez Kam

I have to say it in a way that hasnt been said before, this simple sentence never seemed to become multifaceted as part of a poem. Nileshs poems possess the ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Could one ever imagine that in society, aging fathers are increasingly isolated from their families, like nails being pulled from a fingerLike nails, fathers are also falling away from life now. The anguish embedded in this phrase is horrifying. In Nileshs work, phrases seem to transform into idioms. How can I see the sorrow in the eyes Ive applied kajal, the poet says, sorrow bursts forth like a bud from among the rocks. Here, the idiom is inverted. The sprouting of a bud from rocks signifies an indomitable will to live, but here, the cruel rocks of our social reality yield only sorrow. The poet is compelled to view social reality so profoundly upended by changing times, and he sees this situation as the death of citizenship. The warning on a roadside sign for traffic is read as, Beware! Theres a blind turn ahead/The roads tell/The story of our lives. Only in poetry is it possible to weave this harsh reality of life into a simple statement, and Nilesh does it with remarkable grace. It also reflects the political situation. The term good man was once used to describe a sincere, honest, and somewhat naive individual, but Nilesh uses the same connotation: When man becomes good man/Then even monkeys will become good monkeys. This also allows the reader to find political meaning. Pointing to lifes eternal questions within the common images of the environment around him has been a hallmark of both Nileshs poetry and prose. This new collection of his poems will definitely introduce us to other aspects of his poetic mind.