OF ENCHANTMENT AND HIDEOUSNESS

Poetry is said to be the rhythmical creation of beauty, a beauty that emanates from enchantment and hideousness, ecstasy and agony, castles and ruins. But the redemptive bliss from the poetic phenomenon of ruins assuming rhythm is a divine experience. Mukul Kumar’s sensibility rings with the words of Oscar Wilde: “The artist is the creator of beautiful things... No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” The author is a civil servant, novelist and poet. A 1997 batch Indian Railway Traffic Service officer, he studied Humanities at Delhi University and Public Administration at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. His published works include three novels, As Boys Become Men, Seduction by Truth, and AarzoArshan, and two poetry anthologies, The Irrepressible Echoes and Catharsis. Rhythm of the Ruins is his third poetry collection.

Mukul Kumar

75pp, ~548; The Browser

READ: Breath, by science writer James Nestor, is an account of the vast benefits of breathing right. While many drugs don’t work for panic attacks, for instance, slow and steady breathing acts as an effective therapy. In a world overrun by anxiety, Nestor’s book outlines for the reader the benefits of performing this basic function right.

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