Book Review - The Crossover

Rajorshi Patranabis'  collection of poems "The Crossover: Love Beyond Eternity" published by Biva Publication is a collection of poems with a difference.

All the poems in this collection are about love that's eternal and immortal. They are about love that transcends borders of time, of life and of death. Rajorshi writes about love that cannot be confined within space and time, it flows unhindered and stays in the hearts and souls of lovers even as they cross over to other worlds, to other times.

In the poem "Happily Ever After" Rajorshi says:

Devoid of our bodies and just our souls

Warrants never to hide in holes...

We would flow in the wind and sun,

Just you and me, in sorrow and fun...

The same idea finds voice in his poem "The Crossover" where thus laments a lover-

Your hands so easily, slipped over,

With tears in my eyes,

You managed to Crossover.

The lover goes on to spend his days and nights in the chasm of grief till -

A sudden slip in the chilling night

Relieved my pain, regained all might...

I could hardly fathom, what had happened,

That I realized, that I was dead...

A whisper within told me again,

"Turn around and see me wait".

You stood there, with your usual veil

Asked me, to come and nail,

The story, that remains unclosed.

Rajorshi inspires you to believe that love, fulfilled or unrequited, never fades. It is stored in all its glory in some hidden corner of the universe, for us to discover and re-discover when the time is right.

Rajorshi also weaves beautiful stories through his verses. 

One of my personal favourites is the poem titled "The Nautch", where a woman talks about a lifetime spent in satiating the lust of hundreds of men, and yet searching for her one true love - a search that continues even after she has "crossed over". Rajorshi says

There, stands, the epitaph in my name,

I keep waiting, for my man in vain...

I fly in ether, managing my mane,

Lest comes my man, but all in vain.

There are also elements of thrill in a heart-rending story of a departed soul that carries the pain of betrayal to the other world and must satiate its thirst for vengeance in the poem "Revenge of Sharmila" -

But this was the time to secure

For my disturbed self, a panacea and cure...

"The Redlight", like "The Nautch", brings out the pious beauty of the lovelorn heart of a woman, who, while growing up in a red-light area to be the Queen Bee, dares to fall in love, only to be betrayed by the very man who she had thought would free her from the filth of her miserable life.

I am still bewildered, relieved of my bodily pain

What did I get, did I lose or gain?

And it is in that other world that she is finally blessed with the ultimate wisdom-

Love is a potion that call can heal

So, rise in love, wrong or right;

Any discussion about this book would be incomplete without a mention of the touching, ill-fated love story of an English woman and a native man in the poem titled "Monica" - the woman waiting though decades for her man she lost on a Christmas evening at Park Street.

It has been a century now,

I am Monica, I move around in tow,

The road and lanes in Park Street,

Hustling Bustling cars and fleet,

I still wander with hope no fear,

To find my love, in some nook and corner...

Rajorshi's poems are lyrical, rich in visuals and they tell stories that will stay with you for a lifetime. This is a delectable treat for all lovers of poetry and fiction alike.