Book Review: In Search of Happiness

Book Review: In Search of Happiness

Happiness is an elusive term. Its meaning varies spatially and temporally. Even for individuals its meaning varies on the basis of their orientation.

Thomas Hardy’s famous comment on life seems to be relevant even in 21st century, in which he had remarked, “Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.”Yet the entire human life is an endless pursuit of happiness.

 

In Search of Happiness (A Collection of Essays and Poems)

Author- J.N. Bahukhandi

Publisher- J.N.B. and Co., Jaipur/2011/P136/Rs.100

Happiness is an elusive term. Its meaning varies spatially and temporally. Even for individuals its meaning varies on the basis of their orientation.

Thomas Hardy’s famous comment on life seems to be relevant even in 21st century, in which he had remarked, “Happiness is but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.”Yet the entire human life is an endless pursuit of happiness.

Some might find it in material gains while some others in spiritual accomplishments. For a creative writer this search ends in his creative work which alone can give him a sense of achievement and fulfillment.

In Search of Happiness written by J.N. Bahukhandi is not just a search but is a record of what has been discovered in the search. The compositions collected in this book are an outcome of a life time of experience, observation and conscious effort. Although the author mentions that he wrote these pieces after his retirement from government service, the creative process must have begun much earlier.

The experiences and impressions accumulated through a life time of conscious brooding have flowered in the form of five essays and one hundred and forty seven poems.

The author confesses, “My search for wholeness began tentatively when I wrote my first poem after I entered sixtieth year of my life. The poems are full of wisdom which is distilled from his own experience and learning. They may not be an outburst of feelings but are well meditated outpourings of a conscious mind. Some obvious sources like Taoism, The Gita and the poetry of Omar Khayyam are discernible as one journeys through the poems of this collection.

In the foreword to the book Prof. J.N. Sharma, formerly Head of the department of English, J.N.Vyas University, Jodhpur talks about the poems, “The poems … reflect a sensibility shaped by a severe de-cluttering. Only someone who has very largely stripped his life and mind of worldly ambition and pretensions and focused on simple essentials can write the poems in this collection. (ISH XI)

The British romantic poet William Wordsworth talked of poetry in two different ways. The more popular version is that which talks of spontaneity as a major characteristic but the other one talks of pensive mood and recollection of emotions in tranquility. The poems in the collection seem to be conforming to the second category and reflect the poet’s mature and premeditated reaction to the experiences of the world around. The following lines illustrate this:

Turning inwards doesn’t help

When there is none to reach out

Neither does silence fill,

The space so left out.

Relating to the moments of joy,

Way back in the past;

Is of little comfort

With human ties breaking off fast. (ISH 53)

The essay “Happiness Delineated” is another way to express what the poet has been to say in his verses. There are anecdotes, stories, arguments, illustrations and quotations to prove that happiness is not derived from the externals, the riches or the absence of riches. Various forms of happiness and different stages of happiness are also described. The language is persuasive and convincing:

Happiness is like a dew drop or the rainbow

Like the glory of the sunset as we know.

It’s the radiance of a dream come true,

Or the wild cry of a triumphant crew. (ISH 33)

Though the poems in the collection do not follow any of the well established poetic forms, their free verse flows with a subtle rhythm which comes usually with a prolonged exercise in writing verses. The diction is perfect and suits the mood of the poems. At times one is tempted to feel that some of these could be used to teach as texts for the children studying literature.

In the present Age of Globalization driven by the market forces when all the comforts are available at the click of the mouse, the access to real happiness is conspicuously lost. Amidst such baffling times, a work of poetry in which all compositions converge on the idea of happiness should be welcome to all the categories of readers.

The book is available on a token price of just one hundred rupees, almost the price of a burger. The cover is beautifully symbolic. One thing that is missing is the photograph of the poet. Somehow, one gets connected better and faster to the poems when one looks at the countenance of the creator. Perhaps that is why all kinds of images of God have been created.

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