Jhilmil Breckenridge writes about Visceral Metropolis in The Citizen
The book is peppered by black and white photographs, mostly of Delhi, that make you stop and ponder, as poetry should do. There is a sense of time slowing down, of wondering about our regal (?) past amidst the decaying city.
Here, they’re always digging: gigantic cranes
turning up earth for baolis, the metro,
building foundations. (from The Hills Come Home)
Das Gupta often uses whimsical, unusual images, but does not leave the reader wondering; he makes his point, often, succinctly, and in no uncertain words: “Dusk comes too early;/ darkness obliterates out ruins… nearly.” And so through this haunting elegy mostly for a Delhi crumbling, falling into a man made destruction, there is a sense of hope. And love, always love.
Read the complete review, A Dregs of a City: An Elegy.
