Love, Detachment & Hope in the poems of Nandini Sahu

Abstract

A Song, Half & Half by Nandini Sahu is a collection of her love poems, published in the year 2022. The collection consists of more than sixty poems, each encapsulating an essential flavour of life. The book embodies a heart in solitude, that is accidentally shaken up by the sweet and sour turbulences of memory. A thoughtful poet is always indebted to its memory, one who cherishes nostalgia and uses imagination to weave the thread of past events with a needle of creativity to produce art. Nandini Sahu is one such poet, she is emotional and passionate in her poems, and honest towards her readers. Her love poems are a collage of chronicles that speaks volumes about her journey, full of success, struggles and epiphanies that shaped her personality and character. She is a chronicler who delves into the ocean of life, full of varied experiences and offers a scintillating bricolage to her readers. This paper sheds light on those poems by Nandini Sahu, that explore the themes of detachment, existentialism and absence of feeling. It also examines the idea of belief in fate and the importance of speaking the truth, when surrounded by hardships of life. This dichotomy of hope and despair fuels the poetry of Nandini Sahu, and encourages its readers to live life in the face of defeat.