Iztirab By Manula Mohanti Book Review | Criticspace

This poetry of Manjula Asthana is the greatest version of Hindi literature. She is one of the best poets of her time and we are going to tell about her latest book “Iztirab” in this section. Excellent poetries about love and life… If you have an interest in Hindi poetry this is a masterpiece you should read. Manjula has been already a part of the book “Abhishap Damini Ka” in 2017 and in 2018 she published anthologies as well. It is very difficult to review her work, however, we at criticspace, feel very lucky to read and give our review on the poetry collection. Also, we feel extremely lucky for our generation to have witnessed someone like Manjula. I personally want to read all her work and be part of this grand experience. In the year 2018, she has been awarded with an honor of “Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Bajpayee”. 

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Manjula Asthana needs no introduction. “Iztirab” is a collection of her Hindi poems written over a period of time. It has 54 poems on a variety of subjects. If you like poetry or even if you are looking for a collection to start delving into poetry, this is going to be a perfect choice for you. Poems are in pure Hindi language with some Urdu words, I struggled a bit to understand but once you get familiar with the writing style you get it correctly. So a big Thumbs up!!! 

Here Manjula presents the simple and fully love poems. While many of the snappy lyrics give real strength to the collection and its engagement of the imagination. 

Her taste for the classics, whether it’s reading or writing, is wonderful! The poems, as I came across, by Manjula Asthana are certainly on a different pedestal compared to those which we find daily on a casual day in the magazines or on the web. This collection certainly displayed some promise for poetry and poetic skills. 

Manjula Asthana’s poetry is a grave beautiful moment. She writes: 

Maa Main is jag mein aana Chahta Hoon, Khilte Gulab Ki Madina Muskurana Chahta Hoon
Garbh ke andhere Se Darta Ghabrata Nahin main, Haath Paav Markar kulBulana Chahta Hoon
Teri God Pita ki bahon ka Jhula Parker, Pyar bhari mast Pinge Badhana Chahta Hoon

And believe me, I have been a very good reader of poetry but certainly did not get to read anything like this for so long! Manjula’s poetry seems to have a purpose and at the same time, there is a certain amount of unrest in the verse for the loss of interest in poetry in the intellectuals of this age. In the above poem, she has described an untold feeling of a child which we never hear but we all know it happens in our society. Along with lots of love poems, Manjula is perfect on writing such satirical poems on society as well.

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My Review: Readers, this is a collection of great Hindi poems! You will surely like it, especially because of the powerful titles of the poem and the emotions inside. I liked it very much. Poems are powerful, alive and hopeful.