‘Dad is an emotion,’ says Anurag Talukdar, ‘That you realize only after he is gone.’
Couldn’t be truer. But it is the stark candor, the simplicity and the ache with which he puts it across in the poem ‘An Emotion Called Dad’ is what that pierces through the heart. And this is how Anurag’s poems are; so different in the sense that rather than dwelling on lyrical phrases and complex, polysemic expressions, they come out as refreshing narratives that are as easy to interpret and understand as they are appealing. In fact, each poem has a story to tell, stories of longing and ache, depression and joy, death and love, while ‘Brotherhood’ grazes past mythology and history.
Reading through the poems, there is an underlying notion that the poet might as well be baring, though very subtly, a miniscule part of the truths of his own life. If not so, then it is the power of his expression that makes the reader believe thus. Wouldn’t you, when you read…. ‘I wish I could tell them; I didn't do all too bad. Three patents, two MBAs and a loving wife, more than I could have ever bargained.’ (From Teenage Tales). It is warming to see a Management Professional yet having the time, aptitude and leaning towards the more idealistic, emotional and sensitive aspects of life; aspects that often glide the opposite way of his professional ethics and goals. Under the situation, it is only obvious that some of Anurag Talukdar’s work come out neat and flow-charted, without the fancy trimmings of unnecessary description and drama.
Through this collection of 37 poems, Anurag reveals his sensitivity and compassion towards every situation, age, relation and the flow of time, as he narrates about these in a style that is at times unhurried and gentle… ‘The rain drops were still hanging by the eaves, As I finally heard the cuckoo sing. Something magical in that tune, something that heralds the spring’ (From Spring), and at other times, is closer to prose… ‘We spiral our way through escalators, To the large supermarket where discount is the norm, we buy the week's grocery, and drag the trolley thereafter across the mall’ (From Saturday Afternoon).
Thus, like most creative efforts, Anurag’s poems too speak of a person over whom life and time had swept past, charring and bruising some corners of his soul, and bringing in love and light into yet some other corners. ‘But I have no regrets, for those who have tasted the pleasures of hell, The promise of heaven sounds an empty syllable. (From Empty Syllable) Anurag Talukdar’s poems, however, are far, very far, from being empty. Each bears a message, of life’s ultimate truth.

~ RASHMI NARZARY
Sahitya Academy Awardee
& Independent Editor