The Silver Moon
By Chhavi Anupam
Published by Panchsheel Prakashan, Jaipur
Rs 200
Pages : 168

WITH TV channels and Internet increasingly dominating modern days existence of human beings, the classic form of expression like literature is slowly and steadily getting extinct. And when it comes to the school of poetry, it has simply faded and lives only in the form of “Hasya-Kavita” (Comic-Poetry) in a residual form. However there are still few torch-bearers of ‘romantic poetry’ who believe that poetry is the best way to express one's feeling. Well, if you believe in poetry then here is a collection, The Silver Moon for you basically written in blank verse style.

Silver Moon is a collection of over 60 poems, which try to take you closer to the beautiful mind and soul of a woman. Starting from the first poem ‘The Silver Moon’ and aptly closing with the poem titled ‘For the Glow’. The collection tries to make a journey, which takes to the cold lands ‘In Sibiria’ to enjoy the ‘Rains in Goa’. And guess what! You can enjoy the whole world in a ‘Train to Darjeeling’. Well don’t get confused these are just the names of the poems in the book.

Now if you are thinking that the composer of these beautiful poems is an avid follower of William Wordswoth or the all time great Y B Yeats then you are wrong. In fact the composer is a ‘modernist’ and believes in talking about the writings of Vikram Seth and Ruskin Bond. And again there is a surprise! The composer is not a literature student toiling hard for making a career in literature. The composer is a smart, untaxing revenue official who generally spends time piercing through ledgers and in achieving revenue targets.

More importantly the composer is a lady who actually knows the inside story of an woman’s mind. For this 1986 batch IRS official 'The Silver Moon' is not the first book. She already had three more books to her credit but writing poem is just one aspect of Chavvi Anupam (the poetess of the book). She has represented India in various platforms related to International Finance and Taxation and knows what the financial world is all about.

The books she has published is the testimonial of her personality which shows that despite living in the complicated world of taxation and finance the beautiful mind of a woman is still breathing. And what if the poems are nowhere close to the 'Chayawad' of Hindi literature or the ‘Romanticism’ of english literature, which is full of natural beauty and the Lucy-Gray poems of Wordsworth? What if Chavvi is an IRS officer? At the end of the day she is a woman whom we idolize as a mother, as a goddess, as a sister, as a lover, as a beautiful world of harmony and peace. It is only a woman who can show the real beauty of a moon and Chavvi has tried to do that only.

Though many a times she has lost flow in her poems specially in the poems like ‘Shaadi.com’ and ‘Tax Cuts’ but then you have to consider that as a result of the ugly world we are living in and not like the beautiful world of ‘A Woman’ which says…

Who am I
to prescribe,
that you should
smile
when you look
at me,
you should be soft
when you talk
to me,
you should
grimace
when I am hurt,
and solace when I am disturbed…