the ten hands of a fuchka seller: haiku and senryu
Daipayan Nair. the ten hands of a fuchka seller. Kolkata: Penprints. 2024. Pages 80, Price Rs. 300/- $35. ISBN 9788197403620
Haiku has been a flourishing genre of poetry writing in India. Among the several new practitioners of the Japanese art form, Daipayan Nair has established himself as a remarkable new voice. Daipayan Nair creates truly Indian haiku rooted in where he belongs in a fluid urban space. He captures varying haiku moments from quotidian experiences , and effectively images them, underlining the native sociocultural ethos, as part of Indian kigo with global appeal. For instance,?
"Kolkata street corner--
the ten hands?
of a fuchka seller"
bhel poori
this misunderstanding?
between us
skipping across
the rain-washed terrace
her alta feet
evening adda?
I sip the first line
of her recital
Bhetki Fry
layer upon layer
of your lies
Daipayan Nair explores the complexities of living 'here and now' and draws the inner nature in outer events:
graffiti art--
an old beggar pees
on revolution
red blouse
a safety pin between
her lips
returning home
on a hand-pulled rickshaw
school song
scattered fishbones...
a young waiter gathers
his thoughts
a jute bag
filled with cauliflowers
uncle's greetings
raining petals...
the street sweeper stretches
her spine
Indian vision and imagination predominates the poet's perception, just as his charm lies not in using any verbal or rhetorical trick to create his three-liners but to simply express the ordinary and relatable in truly haiku spirit. His? aesthetically pleasant book testifies to the poet's oneness with haikuists elsewhere,? irrespective of what he shares as senryu, which is his forte. Highly recommended.
--Professor R K Singh