Notes of nostalgia

Geetu Vaid

“In the seventieth year, I sit alone, atop the tall mountain,
Looking at the steep fall on both sides of the sinking valley;
Beneath innocent skies, smiling at the final freedom
Of chasing yellow butterflies between tall green grass.”

These lines aptly sum up and bare the soul of Robin Gupta's latest collection of poems The 70th Milestone. With this collection that marked the 70th birthday of the former civil servant and author of And What Remains in the End: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Civil Servant, Gupta gives a peep into his perception of the peaks and troughs of the journey of his life from the 70th milestone. Each poem is a reflection of his emotional connect and impression of people and places he encountered during his life. 

There is a trip down the memory lane with places like Lodhi Garden, Janpath, Gymkhana Club, Purana Qila in the poems with similar titles, while in other poems he writes about his father, mother, sister Urvashi and ‘friends’. He writes about nature, kings and ordinary men and women infusing a unique freshness into some clichéd thoughts.

Simplicity remains the hallmark of his poetic idiom even as he often stretches the free verse till the edge of prose. This motley collection has its own ebb and flow with ordinary jottings as short verses contrasted with a few reflecting Gupta’s mastery at way with words. Longer verses like A Journey Alone, A Love Song, Birthday 1983, The 70th Milestone-II stand out with their depth of thought and masterly expression of a rainbow of emotions. Gupta opens his heart giving access to readers to trudge in a savour the bitter-sweet flavours of a life lived fully.