Book Review: Evening with a Sufi (Selected Poems)- Beauty in Ravaged Mindscapes.

Reviewer, poet, and critic, Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy reviews a poetry collection titled Evening with a Sufi translated from Telugu by Afsar Mohammad and Shamala Gallagher.

• ISBN: 978-93-92494-16-1 (Paperback)
• Edition: (2022)
• Price: Rs 349. USD 14.99
• Published by Red River

         Evening with a Sufi translated from Telugu by Afsar Mohammad and Shamala Gallagher is a soul-stirring collection of poems. Gulzar writes “There is a passion of a Sufi and the pains of a common man in his poems”. The structure is neat and compact. The first section introduces us to the formation of the self—the poet’s childhood, understanding, and perception of the world around him. The political context, the tussle between the individual ‘I’ and the yearning for freedom —takes us beyond the ‘I’. The first poem in the collection ‘Name Calling’ sets the ball rolling—there is no romantic wrap of the ‘I’ instead of ‘recognition’ the child faces ‘rejection’. Usman a childhood friend is metamorphosed into a scapegoat.