In Between

About the book: When one reads poems written by a young person one ordinarily expects them to express the joys and sorrows of growing up and hopes and aspirations animating a young mind dreaming of and dreading the future. One also expects to share the anxieties oppressing the heart of someone who has not had the benefit of age and experience. However a pleasant surprise awaited me when I started going through poems written by Sumedha put together in this collection. They reveal a whole new world of possibilities and a sensibility shaped by sober reflections on life and its many ironies. They are infused with a quiet intensity and convey a melancholy awareness of a world facing an unanticipated calamity. No wonder the young poet feels the weight of the world on her shoulders. The reader quickly moves away from the external world encompassing the poet towards an interior landscape presented evocatively but without sentimentality or self-indulgence. During this journey questions arising in her mind lead her to explore impenetrable mysteries of life to which easy answers can never be found. Who can for instance answer the question Does the light stop where the dark begins? or Does the light cast its own shadow?. But the questions and a restless search for answers to them lend the poem depth complexity and a resonant beauty.I am confident that as she grows older and finds new ways of experiencing and interpreting the world Sumedha will find a distinctive voice which will render her poems more memorable and more richly meaningful.Jatindra Kumar NayakFormer Professor of English Utkal University OdishaProfessor Emeritus KISS Deemed to be University Odisha