Life is a celebration, filled with countless emotions, experiences, relationships, struggles, and moments of beauty. Capturing these diverse shades of life through poetry is ‘Utsve Jindagi Par Ukeri – Hindi aur Angreji ki Kavitaen’, a collection of Hindi and English poems by poet Saurabh Srivastav.
As the title suggests, the poet views life as a celebration or utsav. Just as a celebration is made vibrant by many different colours, life too is enriched by a variety of experiences. Through his poems, Saurabh Srivastav explores these colours of life—friendship, affection, the courage to rise again after falling, enchanting landscapes, rivers, the love between a man and a woman, romance, the lives of labourers, separation, morality, the inner self, feminine beauty, attraction, the devoted lover, the madness of love, festivals, human nature, teachers, childhood, memories of the village, and even the little mischiefs and transgressions of life.
Together, these diverse shades form a beautiful bouquet that makes life more vibrant and meaningful. The poet has attempted to capture this very bouquet of emotions through the lines of his poetry.
A distinctive feature of the collection is its simple and accessible language. The book contains predominantly Hindi poems, along with several lively sher and a selection of English poems. Urdu words and expressions have also been thoughtfully woven into some of the poems and sher, adding flavour and depth to the writing. To make the collection easier for everyone to understand, meanings of some difficult Hindi and Urdu words have been provided at the bottom of the relevant pages.
The sher in the collection are equally easy to understand while carrying a playful and evocative quality. For instance:
“Itne saste mein sharaab na parosa karo
Bazaar mein thoda ghunghat kaad liya karo.”
The collection also takes readers towards deeper reflections on life, death, God, and the questions that remain within the human mind:
“Haazir hote hain tere reham par, alvida duniya ko karke Bhagwan,
Kuch jawab tu maangega, mujhe bhi chhah prashna karne hain tujhse.”
‘Utsve Jindagi Par Ukeri’ is therefore not merely a collection of poems; it is an attempt to look at life through many emotional and human shades. There is love and tenderness, humour and playfulness, beauty and nature, as well as moments of introspection, struggle, separation, and philosophical thought.