The book begins with ‘The Narrator’s’ daily churnings at her office where she works as a copy editor and encounters male chauvinism every day at the hands of different characters, from the ‘Chief’, who is the founder of the magazine to his emotionally estranged son, Kumar, who takes over after his father’s death.
Another interesting aspect is the powerful presence of women of different generations in the book and their singular power. There is no powerful or oppressive character, dead or alive; Shankar, the influential panda, comes closest to a male trying to manipulate,
Dr Rupinder S Brar is a cardiologist, writer and poet who lives in California. Quoting Bhamaha, a seventh century poet, he says that his intent with this book was also, ‘… to grasp the nature of the world and all tastes (rasa), one by one…’.
The very title Bloom Again (or Phir Ugna) encapsulates the collection’s core ethos. It is not a nostalgic look at a lost past but a powerful assertion of a cyclical ethic of renewal, re-rooting, and reclamation. Even as poems like ‘Migration’, ‘Civilization’, and ‘Return’ mourn the dislocation caused by urbanization and modernity. The collection collectively gestures toward hope and resistance.
The book carries a poem or two from the random listings of poets cited above. The curation shows scant regard for spatial and/or temporal boundaries. This reviewer would refrain from referring to the collection as a symphony, tempting as the word may be, for while with a symphony each cord, each note is synchronized to meld into a harmonious whole, which is not the case with this delightful little book.
The metaphor of ‘lines’ is creatively traced both through text and visual image. The vivid images in the poem are given context and feeling through Kripa’s striking illustrations where washing lines are blown by the wind, a file of refugees walk through the cotton fields to find safety, and closed doors and gates represent the insensitivity and indifference of officialdom.