Contemporary criticism of Indo-English poetry continues to harp on its favourite themes: the alien idiom and Indian sensibility, self consciousness of the poet, lack of a sense of humour, lack of an integrity of experience and social consciousness and so on. At times it becomes a rather lofty discussion of the relation of language to reality and poses the question: can an essentially Indian experience be expressed in English, a foreign language?
Coming to poems in English written by the Indians, the whole debate appears to be academic and, beyond a certain point, totally irrelevant. What perhaps, matters most is the poem itself and the quality of the experience it embodies.
The poet of the collection under review seeks to convey in a series of lyrical poems his private encounter with reality. It is a predominantly urban reality and the poetic voice is that of a sophisticated, sensitive and lonely urban man. The collision between the self and the city results in laconic expressions of anguish punctuated by light ironic touches.