From exile to anthem

The feeling a reader is left with while reading a Marinaj poem is best described by the word 'whisper' from the title of the book itself - "Teach me how to whisper".

- AMANITA SEN

The feeling a reader is left with while reading a Marinaj poem is best described by the word ‘whisper’ from the title of the book itself - “Teach me how to whisper”. As intimate as if in the closest of proximities with the listener, as intent with the message conveyed, carrying to the ears of mankind the stories of its brutal ills and its tender triumphs; a Marinaj poem is as sharp and endearing as the gentlest whisper. Here’s a poet who sure knows this art of whispering like the back of his hand. While turning the pages of the ten sections of the book, the reader gets an up and close view of his background — the space and the time that went into the making of this poet, the places he stopped by being a mindful traveler, the imprints they have left upon him. With open arms he leads his readers to his inner world, to the treasures of his wisdom with all humility and compassion.

How his poems treat the readers is best described by the opening lines of the mini epic featuring at the end of the book, “The Lost Layers of Vyasa’s Skin”:

At the Apsara’s aerodrome their midnight eyes were waiting for me with more welcoming arms than Ganesha; In the echoes of silence Parvati and Shiva named me their son —jokes about wealth forbidden! With hearts bigger than their bodies they opened their doors to me as if they were old books of treasure. … (pg. 175)

Like a pilgrim’s account who feels welcome in a far-off land, this unique poem written soon after his travels to the ancient land of India, takes the reader under its wings much in a way an epic does – most compellingly, to eagerly know where it will lead them to.

Nothing like a typical Westerner’s gaze, who sees India through a firstworld prism, Marinaj’s account is replete with his kind erudition, his thorough understanding of the Hindu mythologies, the epics, the Upanishads that are seamlessly woven into the socio-cultural fabric of the society.