Conveying emotions through poetry gives additional weight to both emotions and the words that are used to express them. It also gives the readers an experience that is etched in their minds, and they are able to connect with the authors and their words at an entirely different level. In reading “Splinters and Musk Rose” by Bhaswati Khasnabis, the readers experience a similar feeling when they go through the poetry written, which expresses emotions, thoughts, musings, and feelings that the poet would have experienced at different junctures of her life. What makes her work interesting is the extent and depths to which she goes to express her thoughts not only on a personal level but on a public level also by raising and addressing issues of social concern and significance. In that sense, the poetry collection raises its status from being a mere collection of poems by Khasnabis and assumes the dimension where its social significance is a lot more.
“Splinters and Musk Rose,” for once, appears to be a simple collection of thoughts that the poet has recorded on different feelings and observations. But, an in-depth study of the poems indicates that those thoughts are not even the tip of the iceberg, as there is a lot more to what seems to be the surface. The exploration of a bunch of themes and issues through this poetry version is significant in entertaining the readers, evoking different thoughts, instigating them to explore ideas beyond ordinary and above everything, and opening their eyes to issues that are grave and generally overlooked in regular life. Poems like “Gulmarg” and “My Brother with the Loaded gun,” among others, are written with this objective in mind. Khanabis’s poems swing between the note of personal as well as public mode. Some poems are written with a personal touch, while others are written in a sense that would hold validity for many. This fact of universality becomes a significant reason in the poetry collection holding validity for more than one generation and extending to many generations together.
Khasnabis, in “Splinters and Musk Rose” relates emotions through the roles she plays in her life. Whether it is through her role as a daughter, wife, sister, mother, or lover, she explores the different forms that her personality takes as per the requirement of the roles and dwells on these roles for her poetic verse to come out. At the same time, she is also in awe of her roles and the versatility with which she can fit into them. “Love without fences,” “My sleeping child,” “On a diet,” “Bring her” are some of the poems among many that justify this idea closely. While the idea is clarified, it also introduces the readers to the art of the poet as a writer.
There are moments when “Splinters and Musk Rose” also dives into the mythologies that include Greek or Roman and show the author’s deep connection with literature, which was instrumental in her creation as a poet. Those poems also demonstrate the poet’s ability to use the existing material and blend it into the present day thoughts that she has in order to create a fresh new version of poetry that features thoughts born from a different century altogether. This makes the collection rich and unique in itself, as it explores a lot more to life than just jotting down thoughts and feelings at random points. “Splinters and Musk Rose” by Bhaswati Khasnabis will be enjoyed by readers who enjoy reading poetry for its depth, purity, and clarity of thought, its desire to go beyond the extent of human imagination and take a journey into a world that is about the exploration of creative ideas and thoughts formed in observation of humans at large. Therefore, this poetry collection is recommended to people of all age groups, irrespective of whether they are readers of poetry or not. After her debut collection, “Murmurings from Hinterland,” the author comes out with a new and interesting collection that explores not only new subjects but also has the resonating effect as set by the former collection. It also makes the readers eager for the new collection that would flow from the poet’s pen and take them to a different world once again.
