Love and heartbreaks are two of the most popular themes on which metres of poetry have been written for ages. Poetry has the power to heal broken hearts and also to make you fall in love some more. No wonder then that Simran Paul has penned her maiden collection of poems, Eleven Ways of Looking at Love. The collection has been edited and introduced by Hilda David, a professor at Symbiosis College and published by Red River.
The young poet attempts to understand the myriad emotions of love through 11 words handpicked from world languages — Koi no yokan; Ala rasi; Xinteng; Yuanfen; Forelsket; Tuqburni; Saudade; Onsra; Toska; Litost and Desenrascanço. Paul explains that these words cannot be directly translated into any other languages, but all of them have something to do with love.
“The 11 poems have been aptly divided under these titles and through the poetry, the reader will understand what the word means,” says Paul, who is based in Pune.
What was the inspiration behind writing the soulful poetry? Paul answers that she, like any other teenager, went through a phase of puppy love and all the things that come along with it. “Over the years, the experiences went on piling up. Of late, I decided that it was time I wrote them. That was the time when I started working on my book, and although it has been published now, it still feels like yesterday that I started writing,” Paul adds. The youngster also recently read out her works at a book cafe in the city.
Talking about why she decided to write poetry instead of working on a novel, Paul explains that when it comes to prose, the rawness and the initial idea is sometimes lost in the process. “Poetry is something that is very close to my heart because it is raw and it is fluid which gives it a different feel altogether and that is something I really love about this form of writing,” says Paul, who recently graduated in Bachelor in Arts with specialisation in English.
However, she also has plans of writing a couple of short stories very soon. “Writing is something that I will be doing for a long time now because it is my way to vent out what I have kept deep in my heart,” she explains.
Going back to Eleven Shades... Paul points out that just like other things, love too has evolved over time. “From the days of stepping out to meet new people, talking to them and then understanding them, we have now reached a stage where we meet people online and that’s it,” says the young poet expressing her scepticism over trusting people in the virtual world.
“The thing with the younger generation is that people have become so desperate to find love, for whatever reason, that they tend to get on these social media sites and meet people. However, even if they meet someone online, there is no guarantee that the relationship will last. If the youngsters find even one thing off-putting about the person they are meeting, there are high chances that they will move on. People don’t want to make things work and as a generation we need to solve that,” she says.
Since Eleven Ways of Looking at Love is the first of her published work, Paul is more than happy about how the way things have fallen in place for her. “It was a daunting experience to begin with, but with the right kind of guidance that I received, it has given me the confidence to keep pushing on and write more in the future,” concludes Paul.
