Book Review - Gitanjali By Rabindranath Tagore

Shri Rabindranath Tagore is one of the greatest poets to come from India. For his beautiful, deep and insightful verses, which expressed his prosaic thoughts, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this post, we will review his one of the greatest creations, GITANJALI, which means SONG OFFERINGS.

Gitanjali is a collected works of over hundred poems, full of life, full of encouragement and full of insights. Gitanjali speaks of life, from birth to the death, the life and man’s pursuit for answers from God. Be it song or rain, nature or god, each poems show the ease of feelings. Simple recurring lines add to certain poems, while other poems are just a collection of sentences connected together. However as said, it is the content which forms the magic of the whole collection when read as one. Rain forms a significant characteristic of this book, with many poems dedicated to rain itself. While one poem explains the pleasure of approaching rain, the other brings about the holiness of a rainy night. Tagore did not have need of too many words to express his meaning. His command over his views automatically flows through his pen with ultimate ease.

Most of the poems signify human existence and emotion that a person goes through. Sharing one of the poems from the collection:

Let all the strains of joy

mingle in my last song

the joy that makes the earth

flow over

in the riotous excess of the grass,

the joy that sets the twin brothers,

life and death,

dancing over the wide world,

the joy that sweeps in

with the tempest,

shaking and waking all life with laughter,

the joy that sits still

with its tears

on the open red lotus of pain,

and the joy

that throws everything

it has upon the dust,

and knows not a word.

It is really a beautiful book with lovely words weaving themselves into divine songs and poems, and there is truth and sincerity through and through. It reaches out, becomes alive in your soul, and sets things a-stirring in the way that is most desired by all lost and thirsty.

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Book Review - Pinjar By Amrita Pritam

Pinjar is a novel written by Amrita Pritam whose literal meaning in Punjabi language is Skeleton. The writer through this story brings light upon the problem faced by women during the time of partition of India. There were rites, rape cases, abduction of young women of opposite community.The women were used just as a symbol of sex for the pleasure of men. Amrita Pritam understood the compassion of the subject matter on which she wrote the novel and she has handled it with utmost respect.The story vividly captured the trouble and misery of Puro as victim of situations while the story moves on an emotional ride with twists and turns which leaves the reader wonder struck as what will happen the next.

The writer in this novel has used her adaptability to represent the sorrow and compassion for the characters in the novel. She has written with courage, infatuation and full devotion. She was herself one of the eye- witness of the partition of India in August 1947 and its consequences. She portrays the pathetic and falling standard of our human spirit in her novel. The novel has accurately brought up the complex role of Puro who is facing all the dilemma in the world in the early ages of her life. She has been kidnapped by a Muslim lad, her family has left her to die,her name has been distorted, her religion has been transformed, she has been married to Rashida who abducted her .In short she has been reduced to only a skeleton with no soul inside her. Still she endeavors for the pleasure of others.No other women facing similar pain and sorrow could have brawled against it with so much confidence.

The story starts with the scene of Puro who is happy and cheerful and is busy doing her daily tasks. She has been engaged to a wealthy, handsome man,Ramchand by her father.Her delighted life turns upside down when she is kidnapped by a Muslim mysterious man named as Rashida. Rashida's family was once disdained by Puro's when a few generations before ,Great grandaunt of Rashida was abducted and kept for three days by Great-granduncle of Puro's. Now Rashida's family took the payback and finally won in their motto by successfully capturing Puro and keep inside his house. There is some kind of gender variation present in the story which depicts the gender treatment at that time,though Puro is shown heroic as she saves the life of Lajjo,Taro. No women has been shown interested in education or earning for the family. Puro and her sisters does their household works and play with their friends in the fields while the brothers are much more educated than them and are pursuing their higher studies. The girls have no role to play in deciding their future husband .Even the elder female members of the family like Puro's mother have no decision over Puro's kidnapping and agrees with what Puro's father speaks.

Thus, such is the heart touching story of PINJAR. You can buy this book online in India at our online bookstore, Shilalekhbooks.com. Visit our store to explore the world of such sensational Hindi ,English, and Punjabi books online. You will find a lot to snatch up in our famous authors books section as well in other sections.