Khudgarziyan’ – Vaishali

Growing up in a post-liberalisation India of the 1990s, Vaishali exuded multipotentiality at a young age and did not limit herself to a particular genre or format. She is equally at home producing cultural content showcasing India's heritage like the India Pavilion, Dubai Expo, ‘Namaste Trump', ‘Sangeet Setu' that was hosted by Akshay Kumar and India's newest museum, the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya as penning poems steeped in the reality of times. Like millions across the globe, Vaishali, too, was compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic to slow down. She used the period to rekindle her first love - poetry. Over the next few months, she put together her maiden collection Khudgarziyan which could be best described as a mosaic exploring the enchantment that life casts.

In 1970, a few years before his untimely death at 32, poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi expressed that while some believed poetry emanated from love or life's frustration, he felt it took all this and much more for a poem's birth. Batalvi's words could well describe Vaishali's poetry that exists between life's specific bookends. Traversing between what one sees and what ought to be seen, Vaishali lays out the core meaning of things as seen by the world and the emotions experienced by the heart but drowned in the din of existence.

In Khudgarziyan, Vaishali delves into the labyrinths of the heart and mind:

Naseeb kahoon, ya karm / Imaan kahoon, ya dharm/

Vajah kahoon, ya zaroorat / Masoom kahoon, ya shararat

Dava kahoon, ya beemari / Azaadi kahoon, ya ghulami

(Iss Pyar Ko Main Kya Naam Doon)

She seeks herself when lost and hopeless:

Mulk hai khud ka / Par khud ke liye jagah nahin

Mere hi saaye ko meri parwah nahin

(Refugee)

At times, she begs simple things:

Tumhari shirt ke pehele do button ke neeche/ Jo chhao hai, wahin kahin mera dera daal do

And, she is ready to give up all:

Mere sar se chath jaati nahin / Mere ghar mein dhoop aati nahin

Mere mann mein kadi lagti nahin / mere wqt se ghadi chalti nahin

Kyon ki main tere saath hoon aajkal

(Kyon Ki Main Tere Saath Hoon Aajkal)

But don't be fooled, it's her choice:

…Tabhi toh bada dil karke tumse pyar kar liya / Varna main kaafi hoon, khud ka dil jeetne ko

In some way, Khudgarziyan is testimony to how poets rarely settle for anything less than truth. Born and raised in a simple middle-class Gujarati family, Vaishali's observations are steeped in the reality of her surroundings. What are these realities that her words roar loud but in a poignantly silent way?

Like Shri Harivanshrai ‘Bachchan', who did his doctoral thesis on WB Yeats, Vaishali has a double masters in English and Mass Communication and finds herself at ease using the words and parlance of the times:

‘Archive mein pade messages ki tarah/ Main tumhari yaadon ko kabhi kholna nahin chhati

Par jab bhi galati se khol leti hoon / Tab tum online hi milte ho'

Vaishali has come of age soon and offers an authentic voice to the emotions that emanate from the imagined clashing with the real. One needs to read Makdi ke Jaale, amongst her finest touching poems, to experience how the unreal percolates into consciousness:

Tum akele ho ghar mein aaj, sochna dinbhar fursat se/ Khidki se bahar dekhna, kitne tanha hai log yahan

Tata Toyota ki bheed mein / Kahin hum dono bhi na takar jaaye iss bheed ki deewaron se

Issi liye mein baandhe jar ahi hoon tumhe / Phichle waale kumre mein makdi ke jaalon se'

Khudgarziyan has an old-world lovers' charm that unravel the fault lines of the heart in more ways than one could imagine. Visceral imagery and metaphors speaking a million things coupled with a willing acceptance of life and destiny, even death, Vaishali's words cease to remain mere words. She questions and questions and questions the answers but don't mistake her from lacking joie de vivre. Her effervescence engulfs you, and once you enter her world, you will never leave…

Khudgarziyan is available at leading bookstores and Amazon and Flipkart.