I found poetry in a pandemic, says Sneha Bhura, senior correspondent, THE WEEK, about her first poetry chapbook. The lockdown brought many lives to a standstill. As work from home became the new normal, people found outlets to release their pent-up energy—writing, running, cooking, singing, painting—leading to discovery or re-discovery of hidden or buried talent.
Though Sneha was busy reporting during the lockdown, she started to write for herself when work was long over. “It took a pandemic-induced lockdown combined with a desperate bid to save one hope-instilling event from melting into inconsequence to heave out my fear and anguish into midnight poems. Since then, there has been no looking back,” she says in the introduction.
Her collection of 31 poems is intimate and evocative. They speak of heartbreak and loss, hope and happiness. From purging the past to igniting new fervour, the poems touch upon different relationships and their emotions. Friends, family, flatmate, life back home in Kolkata and in Delhi, and even cooking during a pandemic inspires poems.
There is longing, anxiety, laughter, events and also a pen drive full of memories. Sneha has written about everything she felt before and during the lockdown and ends on a note of acceptance and understanding.
Velvet Grapes is honest and simple and, if, as the book says, it is drunk midnight poetry, it is of fine quality.
Velvet Grapes: Drunk Midnight Poetry
By Sneha Bhura
Published by Hawakal Publishers
Price Rs250, pages 56
