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| Book Review on the collection of poems of Dr Chndra Kanta Kantroo | | 
By Dr K N Pandita
Songs of Vitasta, I Sing, authored by Dr Chandra Kanta Kantroo, pp 130, hard bound, first edition 2025, ISBN 978-81- 9849 – 6-3, published by Intech Printers and Publishers, Karnal, Price INR 490-
Chandra Kanta Kantroo, a versatile scholar of English literature, has rendered life-long service to teaching and research at the highest academic levels. Her book, not voluminous but exhaustive, remains a milestone in the path of transition from the classical model to contemporary elegance of poetic composition.
Chandra’s poems, Songs of Vitasta I Sing, is a collection of 109 poems, mostly short, succinct and sombre. Born out of a deep nostalgia for the place of her origin – Kashmir, these poems are markedly different in the method of treating the theme when compared with the bulk of vernacular poetry produced by litterateurs in exile. The poet does not lament the trick destiny has played with her community; she assigns this task to the objects of nature that had kept company with the people of the land for millennia at end. She makes tree-tops shed tears for failing to assuage her hurt sentiments, she makes the dark and dreaded nights talk in whispers, she makes the winds flee in fright and she makes the River Vitasta sing a doleful song.
To me, these ‘Songs’ feel like a bouquet of poems inspired by a deep longing to pause, reflect, and meditate. At times, the speaker takes on the voice of a bard in pursuit of answers. These poems capture the deep rhythms of life while bringing together the beauty of everyday moments, which often slip past unnoticed. Written in a simple, conversational tone, the poems create a space where the speaker and the listener are privy to each other's thoughts.
Chandra Kanta Kantroo’s poems, At times, the speaker takes on the voice of a bard in pursuit of answers. These poems capture the deep rhythms of life while bringing together the beauty of everyday moments, which often slip past unnoticed. Written in a simple, conversational tone, the poems create a space where the speaker and the listener are privy to each other's thoughts.
Though the poems are rooted in the landscapes of rivers, lakes, and mountains of Kashmir, they resonate with the universal human heart, transcending cultures, countries, and boundaries.
Chandra Kanta comes from a bruised and wounded community. Like many of us, she carries the heavy burden of now-empty reminiscences. What I appreciate about her poems is that, while others often sing a doleful rhyme, she looks beyond the horizon. There is an unmistakable optimism in her songs, and the singer of these poems ultimately reaches home after all the travails of unimagined travel. She is like a bird:
not seeking escape
but space to soar
One poignant poem in this collection is ‘Undying Pain’. While there is ample literature on the tragic partition of India in 1947, Chandra’s dirge for the partition of Vitasta moves onedeeply, far beyond the words. She presents a visual landscape:
The Vyeth
meandering its course
along the valley
into the placid Wular waters,
a voluminous presence at Sopore,
narrowing down to Uri
and then onward...
our Vitasta...
shrinking,
sulking,
brooding,
burying deep
the undying pain
of Partition…
The dirge is poignantly poetic because Vitasta is the cradle of the Sanskrit civilization of Kashmir, enduring an undying pain.
Chandra’s poetic reach is comprehensive, touching almost every walk of life. Starting from a sense of exile and nostalgia, her poems traverse the ordinary and the extraordinary, the internal and the external, the physical and the metaphysical.
Her poetry is both earthly and ethereal—a swing taken at will, yet always mindful of the equilibrium that governs existence. In the poem Mother’s Pyre I Lit, she writes:
the pains of life
finding release;
in that fire
I let her go…
I walked back
a motherless child
The phrase ‘motherless child’ reflects cosmic agony, yet it remains a lament grounded in earthly terms. In her poetry, I find echoes of the great Iranian poetess Forough Farrokhzad, who tells her lover, “Come and perish with me, because nobody’s love is immortal in terms of time.”
The world we live in is full of contradictions and oddities; so is life. What matters is how we perceive them and what paradoxes lie hidden within. Take a look at the poem LaldedCries:
but they laughed
so I laughed with them
truth is a joke
until it splits you open
In Kabira Speaks, the earthen pot boasts of its strength in imprisoning water. But when it breaks, the imprisoned water smiles at the pot’s limitation.
Not choosing a conventional approach to words, the poetess gives voice to inanimate objects around her. A kettle, a pot, a stone, a slate, a pen, and ink—she makes them speak for themselves. What we see as mundane objects, she imbues with a philosophical depth that resonates more than a thousand words.
With command over phrase construction, the poetess skilfullyemploys oxymorons to great poetic effect. Her tongue-in-cheek approach unfolds layers of meaning, making the ordinary seem both real and surreal. Her caravan of thoughts often diverges mid-path, disappearing only to reappear with fresh clarity. In My Packed Suitcase, she writes:
my suitcase carries
more than things:
a tethered mind,
a piece of home
Some of her phrases— ‘tethered mind,’ ‘the rhythm of destruction,’ ‘beauty in imperfection,’ ‘the dance in stillness,’ ‘clarity in chaos,’ ‘wisdom in the curse,’ ‘structures of silence,’ and ‘the ache of existence’—stand out as fountains of unspoken impressions, hidden within the creative mind.
The poet often speaks less of the outside world and more of her dialogue with the alter ego. Their mutual discourse is not argumentative but reflective, leaving behind a mosaic of visions and perceptions:
the mirror was my witness.
it showed me the scars
of battles I never chose,
yet also the strength
to endure the storm
Style, as they say, defines the person—and in this case, the poetess. Chandra has her unique way of crafting poems, blending creativity with ingenuity. She roams the vast world yet remains anchored in her inner shell, in constant conversation with her unseen self. Her poetry is introspective, passionate, and imbued with a flight through mist.
In Kruhoon Sheen, she expresses deep pain for her homeland:
why is this sky in mourning?
who brought this black snow?
The cloud comes with thunder but leaves without a goodbye.
The question that arises after reading this collection is this: Is the poet preparing a new generation to respond differently to its inner voice? Will they understand when she says:
You are a dream,
a halo of light,
a ray of hope,
clear and bright
I know you are a dream
I am confident that this collection is a torch the poetess carries to step out of darkness into the clear and bright light of wisdom and truth.
(KN Pandita is the former Director of the Center of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University.)
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