Hauser also provides fascinating accounts of the various remedial methods adopted by people across centuries: from devout prayers to throwing out of earthenware, inhalation of aromatics to wearing beak-shaped masks and more.
A head-on collision with injustice, oppression, inequity, discrimination, etc., do not a good poem make. The language may be rousing, the rhythm may be seducing, yet, in the ultimate analysis, whereas the poem may delineate an injustice of history, it may not be an imaginative tour de force like Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’ or Mona Zote’s ‘What Poetry means to Ernestina in Peril’.
This verse reflects on the endless passage of time and the gradual wearing away of moments. In solitude, a chance encounter symbolizes a sudden, unexpected connection or escape from the ordinary. Amidst the turmoil, love remains patient and hopeful, waiting to embrace the boundless, timeless essence of the beloved.
His deceptively simple imageries stand as some of the finest specimens of poetry affirming his enduring legacy in a rapidly changing art world.
If the book has a flaw, it is the almost anticlimactic dénouement, where everything falls into place tamely and Twain sails away without making any major waves or being touched by this fascinating palimpsest of a city teeming with stories.
In moments of solitary quietness, Chowdhury strikes intimate relations with insects and other non-human beings. Interestingly, a slow-moving caterpillar, or a dancing butterfly enhances his craving for self-consuming privacy all the more.