Life is a temptation, isn’t it? Everyone realizes that one day or the other, the body has to merge with the soil, and the soul has to unite with God. Maybe man keeps on searching for God all the time, but it isn’t so easy to find Him, isn’t it? In the midst of this search, some desires, some yearnings and some restlessness are born, and Limca Book record holder Neelam Saxena Chandra presents these feelings of the soul in the form of nazms and kavitas.
An internationally acclaimed poet, and one listed as one of the most popular writers by Forbes in 2014, Neelam’s writings are based on varied themes such as social, nature-based, motivational, philosophical, feministic, or simple meanderings of life. Just like quite a few famous poets of yesteryears, Neelam discovers many philosophies of life through nature. She has often said that her soul resides in nature, though she has to often put up with concrete jungles due to the necessities of life.
Quite a few of the writers and poets in recent years seem to emerge and connect to readers from streams different than literature, such as Engineers, Doctors, Geologists, Mathematicians etc, and Neelam seems to be one of them. An engineer by profession, she says that she enjoys her job as much as she enjoys writing poems and stories.
When asked, “What was the first thing you wrote and at what age?” Neelam replied that she began to write poetry when she was in sixth grade, though she mostly kept her poems to herself. She was first published when she was in Eighth Grade in a newspaper having the highest circulation in Central India at that time. She used to express her thoughts on various subjects that interested her at that time, such as social and political conditions, games such as the Olympics and Asiad games, etc, through “Letter to the Editor” in the same newspaper. She often used to question a few outdated traditions, even at that young age.
Neelam adds, “Writing is like meditation to me, and I enjoy the calmness and serenity that it gives to my mind to tackle the challenges posed by my job. My job and poetry complement each other. I find my inspiration to work well at my office premises through my poems and stories!”
Neelam has published around 71 books, and “Moh se Bandhi Main” is her fourteenth poetry collection. She is a bilingual writer and switches between languages with ease. She uses lucid language (be it her English books or Hindi books), and her books are very easy to read. Maybe, that’s the reason for her popularity.
“Discovering oneself is a quest which takes ages, and as is evident in certain of my poems, I am still trying to find the answer to that question. I have also tried to question certain social norms based on color of their skin, tried to make women aware of their strengths and how they have to face the world of today, and tried to tell the readers that there can be no friend better than yourself,” says Neelam. Nature has played a prominent part in her poems. The challenging role of women in society emerges strongly in her poems, and she portrays resilient women. Certain poems speak about the sadness of the diminishing role of common vendors as people are shifting to buying from malls. In short, Neelam has tried to cover various aspects of life in her poems in title “Moh se Bandhi Main”. The cover page of the book is designed by a thirteen-year-old artist, Tavishi Saxena. Earlier, she had also designed the cover page of Neelam’s poetry book in English titled “The Lost Mint Taste”. Neelam’s cover pages are normally very vivid, and this is no exception. She says that they indicate love towards life.
The book will be released online on social media platforms which will be followed by an offline release. The online release will have reputed writers/journalists such as Sunil Deodhar, Sanjeev Jaiswal, Jeetendra Dikshit, and Tikam Shekhawat, and the program will be hosted by the well-known poet Renu Mishra.
Awarded by Maharashtra state Hindi Sahitya Akademi, Ministry of Railways, Radio City etc. it is always interesting to see what Neelam has in store for her readers, and it is expected that the book will better her own standards.
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