Labour of Love

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's first poetry collection after 25 years is a slim, densely packed experience

- Juhi Saklani

BOOK OF RAHIM & OTHER POEMS by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra WESTLAND ₹399; 72 pages

Everything is history. A poet-cum-general who gave away all his belongings to his soldiers. Nameless illustrators in the medieval Mughal headquarters of Burhanpur. A family home we had to flee at Partition. A father’s graduation certificate, a mother’s ball of wool. An ageing poet of Dilli who wants his pension from the colonial masters. The Bengali Library Lane where no one can read Bengali.

Rich with erudition and an informed imagination, fascinated by (that irreplaceable word again) history, and replete with observation, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s first collection of poems after 25 years is a slim, densely packed experience.