Title: Voice of the valley
Description: "BIPIN PATSANI launches a quest for truth, recognition of the self and the need for contemplation. It gives an idea of the depth and wealth of poetic talent in English available in the country at present."          
                                                                                                           - D.Venkatesan (in The Hindu, Madras, July 26, 1994)

"The poems range from the philosophical to the religious and show a keen penetrating mind."    - Ruth Wildes Schuler (U.S.A)

"It gave me great enjoyment and relief."                      - Dr.(late) Stella Browning, New Romney, Kent, England

"The most endearing feature of Bipin Patsani's poetry is that certain childlike simplicity underlying the profundity of his cogitative assertions. In this, he shows his poetic genius to the full; ........with all the clarity of an artist's true perception."

                                                                                        -  Barnard M. Jackson, Poet and Review Writer
`                                                                                          Newcastle Upon Tyne, England

   
'Book Review                                                                                             ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
VOICE  OF  THE  VALLEY     - A First Book of Verse   by  BIPIN  PATSANI                  
 Publ. by Writers Workshop(Redbird Books) 162/92 Lake Gardens, Kolkata, India
 First Edition: 1993      Price: Hardback – Rs150/-,       Paperback – Rs100/-                                                                              ISBN                             81-7189-532-8,                         81-7189-533-6  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
                                                                              - Reviewed by Bernard M Jackson  


                  “You find your words and you
                   Have become one
                   Which hitherto was only meditation,
                   The faltering speech becoming a voice.”

It is the strangest that Man, in his restless desire to find the meaning of life, must ever explore new frontiers and so abandon basic roots and traditional values in order to follow his dream. In the modern world, the dream of Man has become diversified to such an extent that material considerations and fast-track ambition has somewhat blurred his vision, and considerably demeaned his spiritual quest. Despite the discoveries and ‘breakthroughs’ of modern scientific inventiveness, many would now settle for the comforts of the ‘here and now’, in what is rapidly becoming a push-button society in a Mammon-centred world. Man has thus concocted makeshift dreams incorporating the transience of advantageous living, which has further engendered egotistic aspirations of alarming multiplicity. This state of affairs predictably threatens to destroy the very fabric of (what has already become) a decidedly unbalanced framework for modern living. It is little wonder, therefore, that the true poet, finding himself at variance with such a world, becomes introspective and seeks solace from within, for only thus can he even begin to know the true meaning of existence.

VOICE OF THE VALLEY, a spiritually-inspired collection by that well-known Indian poet, Bipin Patsani, stems from the Vedic principle of “Quest for self and order” in the midst of encircling gloom, and offers hope to those who would return to spiritual roots:
                        
                           Unlike dead souls
                           Dragging on to graves,
                           A person is a course 
                           Who has the will
                           And courage to move
                           And live as part
                           Of the creative process.
                                                                -( The Being and Four Poems)

In his excellent introduction, the poet makes the point that poetry is an infinite living force; ‘the still point of the moving soul that moves everything, itself moving not’. There follows a beautiful poem in which he utters a heart-felt exhortation, in the cause of humanity, for Mankind to raise ethical standards and so break down all barriers that divide communities and ethnic groups in our present times:
                                   
                              So let us be redeemed
                              From all kinds of narrowness
                              And rise a little above
                              So as to carry on our head
                              Our own heaven of freedom
                                                                ( Introductory Poem)

The most enduring feature of Bipin Patsani’s poetry is that certain childlike simplicity underlying the profundity of his cogitative assertions. In this, he shows his poetic genius to the full; for what may at first be misconstrued as egoism, is merely observation born of knowledgable insight, and expressed with all the clarity of an artist’s true perception. His poem, ‘The Magic Me’, certainly seems to illustrate this aspect of his work:
                          
                           What is surprising 
                           Is not what I see around 
                           But the magic me.
                           And the wonders of the world
                           Seem to be hidden within,
                           Appearing sometimes,
                           Making their presence felt
                           And vanishing
                           Leaving me in excitement and thrill.
                                                                       -( The Magic Me)

Within this collection, childhood memories are recalled so vividly, as in ‘Baratota- My Pretty Little World’, thus highlighting the starting points of a lifelong spiritual awareness that was so carefully nurtured in that idyllic family setting, amongst those he loved so dearly. It is not surprising, therefore, to find this longer poem preceded by a brief and rather touching one entitled simply, ‘Mother’. But essentially, the poet’s whole motivation emanates from a constant restless yearning for his eventual Nirvana:

                   “Now that I have come all the way in search of a meaning and a 
                     purpose of living, should I retreat? No going back, come what may,
                     even if it costs me my life, my family and faith; for poetry is greater
                     than all this, the still point of the moving soul that moves everything,
                     itself moving not.”
                                                - Final statement in his Introduction.

Here then is a poet who travels beyond the inspirational works of earlier Romantics, such as Wordsworth and Shelley, to speak a deeper hidden meaning for life itself. In his poem, ‘Experiment with Truth’, he combines radiant simile with scholarly scientific treatise. Similarly, he makes inspired use of scientific analysis in his shorter poem, ‘Relativity’, culminating in powerful metaphor in his final verse:
                    
                     An interaction
                     Does not kill the potential
                     But makes it live 
                     In its creative capital.

Perhaps the most moving poem in this collection is ‘Crisis of Identity’: The ORIYA ROOT, where he employs extensive rhetoric and declamation in an attempt to establish the universality of spiritual intent. Here again, he clearly demonstrates that the journey is essentially of an inward nature:
         
                               No political agreement
                               Vulnerable to time
                               Is greater than the root,
                               Not even a country
                               Which is a changing concept
                               Widened or made compact
                               Conditioned by situations 
                               Or common interest.
                                                             - (Crisis of Identity)

Born in 1951, at Baratota near Khurda in Orissa, India, Bipin Patsani, an M.A. in English from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack and an experienced teacher, has been writing poems in English since his high school days, and seriously for the last thirty years. Curiously, this is his first published collection, though his reputation as a rising Indo-English poet is quite considerable, many of his poems already having been published in well-esteemed authoritative journals and in a wide variety of anthologies over the years. Indeed, some of his poems have been translated into Oriya, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese. In conclusion, I feel I must say that VOICE OF THE VALLEY invites the reader to a journey with a difference. ---- And in extending my heartfelt congratulations, as fellow-traveller, I sincerely trust that my review of this veritable tour de force will bring his poetry to the attentions of many. I leave you with a haunting quotation from his penultimate inclusion:
                    
                          Let our knowledge and faith be one
                          To moisten our dry souls with meaning
                          Like the blissful union of the sea and sun
                          That feasts the eager earth with the monsoon.

                                                                                   - EPILOGUE 
______________________________________________________________________________
Bernard M. Jackson:   British Poet and Review Writer             
12 Selborne Gardens, Jesmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne: England: NE2 IEY
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