Re: Do They Feel? (e-book)

I am a proud and blessed father of Surabhi Kulkarni, who
has given me the privilege of writing about her and her poems for the second time in a short span of eight months– especially at this tender age. I am a close witness to this transformation of Surabhi and her poetry and it’s been a unique experience.
It’s almost like watching the butterfly taking birth, coming
out of the cocoon… letting it go through all the efforts required to break the walls, get the strength to face the outside world by
oneself, get gradually exposed to the realities of this dry world,
letting it go through the learning process of dealing with the “rules of the game” …

Honestly, it has been a miraculous experience to be
associated with such a bright mind, blessed with these thinking
abilities – to be able to get into the shoes of any individual, to
have the ability to experience the feelings and actual events and to be able to articulate them in such an articulate manner. I am not asserting here for being Surabhi’s father, but it’s my honest submission to the world – which has concretized over a period of time and I am sure to put it in words here.

Surabhi, my daughter has been writing small poems since
her second or third standard. She has been engrossed and found to be in her own world number of times, imagining and seeing out of the world concepts – we used to wonder on what she is doing and often felt worried as her parents. She would come up with a completely well-thought and insightful perspective and could talk convincingly about it and we could feel the depth of her thinking.

The first book was an exploration and expression of her
thoughts about this world and that has gone to further depths of
deeper thoughts in this book. Looking back, I find a huge sense of introspection about topics that aren’t touched often and openly, about themes that I considered normal teenagers mightn’t get access to or get related to but she came to me with a focused mindset and told me that “I want to take up “THIS” specific topic for my next poetry book” – even before the launch of her earlier book. My honest reaction (in my mind) was – “why are you taking such a heavy topic?” – “take some lighter one …” But she was determined – she wanted to express herself and the current teenager of what they see, experience, reckon, expect, worry, indulge, fantasize, discuss, imagine, think, plan .. From their expanding world and what is the “world feeling about it” … does the “world” really FEEL? She was almost sure of the title of this book around that time.

Surabhi confronted me with the question, “Do you really know what this title means?” I was taken aback and will attempt to
explain it here… DO THEY FEEL? Is about a sense of
“questioning” the status-quo by the individual to the various
elements of this world – the individual could be elated, happy, full of enthusiasm or going through drudgery, oppression, deprivation, depression, aggression, provocation, allurement… does the world “think” about this individual going through these experiences and does it really “feel” what this individual is going through .. Help apart! … The individual could be “she”, “he” or “they” together. It’s an expression of the deepest feeling in the minds of this individual, the feelings of handicap, deprivation, suppression, happiness, elation, subjugation, repression, disappointment, frustration, anticipation, suspense, deception, euphoria or as strong as despair or desolation – Surabhi has dealt with all of these experiences from that individuals point-of-view and articulated the state of mind of this individual with a question in mind to the world – “I am going through all this – do you feel, do you care, do I really matter, do you mind, do you really find me to be important, do you give me damn” …

The mode of presentation of these poems is outlining the
state of this individual, the actually description of the event and
then the state in which this questions are coming up … making an end to the poem... The titles are so very aptly chosen and I tried to test Surabhi by indicating and suggesting to make some
changes to them and found her to be “rock solid” on the thinking
behind them and “has not moved from naming them as they are”.

Some of the experiences outlined here are out-of-context for a teenager and I was personally not very sure about it, but eventually when I read through those poems I could appreciate
Surabhi’s abilities to keep it extremely specific, but enough abstract for the imagination of the reader. Let me confess, that a huge, huge and really huge amount of thinking has gone through Surabhi’s mind before writing these poems, putting them in the sequence they are now and what she has as a view point as a bouquet of poems.

The sections Abstract and Romance represent the mood of the poems as the way the “individual” perceives and experiences it – Abstract demonstrating deeply engraved experiences , while Romance relating to the subtle, but definite relationships and their tenderness the poetess is bringing forth . In
the Abstract section, the poetess asks question to “them”, who
should know the perspective about the “Prize”, the treatment like a “Toy”, how the “Past” gets engraved, how they behave as “Black hearted” and how the materialistic world crushes the hearts like “Machines” from those from this world, which conventionally get called as “Family” … There is a clear thread in the whole of the sequence in the sections, the meaning and messaging in the poems…

The poems like “Nightmares”, “Chaos”, “Depression”,
“Hunt” represent some of the extreme and bold experiences –
very non-peculiar to this age, but coming across very starkly. I
would leave the further explorations and hence interpretations for your creative minds. Surabhi goes to the extent of defining her own terms, which are not to be found in the conventional English vocabulary, for example the poem titled “Luavers”, represents her own form of emotion and meanings – leaving the reader wonder and make him choose a different meaning to the normal word “lovers” by the shade brought in, in the context of her poems.

In Surabhi’s views, the shorter the poem, better is the richness, depth, abstraction, imagination and symbolism it represents – it’s more rewarding to the poet for the variety of contexts that could be brought in front, while it’s extremely thought provoking for the reader to apply their own contexts for their own interpretations during “decoding” of this “code” in each
of the poem. When one is able to put all the interpretations across and then looks at the whole set together and tries to connect the dots – the whole book and hence the book’s title “Do They Feel?” resonates in the minds.

I find Surabhi or even the current generation as extremely
blessed, and at the same time very capable, matured, strong and bold, having no inhibitions, and abilities to experience the world about 15-20 years ahead in time and still being humble about it.

This is a bliss to the current generation – you have it in you, you
are exposed to all the possible modes of expressions...

Aim is to share these poems, have them getting known and
associated with sensitive and appreciating minds. I strongly believe that these feelings are contagious – they will definitely take you down the thought journey and you start getting the same, similar or your own experiences associated with the feeling in the poems. I believe that it would be the success criteria for the effectiveness of Surabhi’s blooming poetry.

In my view, it’s just the start and a long way to go …

Surabhi will keep on getting indulged in further variety of
experiences, shades of feelings and keep on capturing and
articulating them... She will definitely reach out to you with more
bouquets of poems and will be happy to touch your minds.

My thanks to you for getting associated with this book, I
am sure that this journey together is going to be extremely
satisfying mutually – please feel free to share your views on
shirish_kul@yahoo.com.

Shirish M. Kulkarni (Surabhi’s Father)