Literature is open to all. The way we can read literature freely is wonderful! At the same time, that everyone can express his or her views in prose or verse form is an equally wonderful idea. There have been many young talents who have exhibited promising talents at the very beginning of their careers… and there is one by the name of Rushali Mukherjee whose book I will be reviewing today. Moon Child, published by Bloomsbury India, is a collection of random poems coupled with carefully drawn sketches. This is the debut publication by Rushali. She has been active in the field of writing for a few years, at a very young age, before coming up with her maiden publication.

When I glanced first on the cover image, it almost shows nothing. It’s like a child has written something on the image of the half-moon that doesn’t look beautiful because it’s zoomed to the pores on its surface. However, when I flipped the pages, I was instantly drawn to admiring the sketches first, and then, eventually, the poetry as well. However, the first attention is instantly won by the sketches – a picture is worth a thousand words and whoever said it was not wrong!

Well, it has to be said that Rushali has been very emotive in this debut collection of poems. There is no pattern, no scheme, no concrete unified theme in the poems as a whole, as a collection. However, the pieces are beautiful in their isolation. The poet muses about love, mother, father, friend, oneself, loneliness, nature, night, evening, time and what not… the poems are short, generally, and I liked what I read, mostly. Though the maturity and universality of thoughts are missing and one might expect the same because the poetess is just 18, yet. However, at times, the poems strike as well… more than what a capricious thought might do.

Critically, the attempts by Rushali generally reveal what a person might call a little negatively tilted emotions. Though poetry does not warrant one to be entirely positive, hopeful and motivational and this is the prerogative of the poet to go whichever way he or she wants, readers will not be disappointed because the poems have sparks of hope as well. For example, have a look at the concluding poem itself (an extract):

“I am the child of the moon
I am veiled by the darkness
Incapable of shining on my own
Till the people who love me
surround me in their glow
and fill me with light
so that I am visible”

Well, this striking conclusion may impress many readers that the poet has completed the journey as the moon does – from darkness to light and back and forth and this is a continuous process… a circle that never ends. However, in human life, we have to stop at a point; we all have to. Therefore, Rushali’s shift from hopelessness to hope, darkness to light, loneliness to love, strange emotions to stability… negative to positive, in short, will impress the readers.

The sketches will impress irrespective of the poems as well. However, with poems above the sketches, or on the left or right side of the verse, look more complete and the readers will like it more, I believe. To conclude my review, I would say that the poetry collection has certainly impressed me with the fire in the young poet to express her emotions and she has done it freely, most of the times. It is natural because she hasn’t bothered about the way a message is delivered; she has just delivered the message she wanted to deliver… bold and striking but young and ambitious, at the same time, and this will be turning into something better as the poetic journey continues. With best wishes to Rushali, I would also like to convey that she should work on her diction, form of poetry and also find the best pattern for her verse so that her thoughts don’t only get translated into poetry but they get the best possible form that pleases her readers as well as conveys her thoughts to them.

You can get a copy of the collection, Moon Child, from Amazon India by clicking the link below:

Buy the poetry collection now – Amazon India

Review by Parakashtha for Indian Book Critics