The Lunatic, Lover and Poet Are of Imagination Compact

The Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, put the lunatic and the lover in one row as theirs is a rich legacy of dreams and imagination.

- Nirupama Dutt

The Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, put the lunatic and the lover in one row as theirs is a rich legacy of dreams and imagination. However, the poet has a greater gift of understanding the world around and even interpreting and analyzing it, as well as reaching out to others in metaphors that soothe the head and heart of the reader or listener. Such are the thoughts that come to mind as one holds a mint-fresh book of poems curiously titled "Adha Ilaaj" (half the cure). The very name connects the lover and the poet who often express their pain and pangs in verse.

The author of this unique collection of new verses, opening one side in Hindi and the other in Urdu, is Salman Akhtar—an Indian-American psychoanalyst practicing in the US. His is a strong and old connection with our city for after completing his MBBS in Aligarh Muslim University Medical School, Lucknow, he chose to complete his postgraduate studies at PGIMER under the well-known psychiatrist NN Wig. He went on to do his psychoanalyst training from Philadelphia Psychoanalyst Institute.