Shukdeb Sen
Fifty-one poems included in this collection describe the author’s internal and external sentiments and the journey of exploring human behavior and its unique presence on this planet. Human life is filled with various phases where love, passion, suffering, rejection, acceptance, pathos, and pleasure intertwine in a homogenous fluidity that is the essence of human existence. To understand and cherish human quality will allow us to value the human life with dignity that needs to be preserved and celebrated throughout the humanity. This collection of poems raises the concerns of women and empowers their identity and voice so that women’s rights would be preserved and would resonate with people who have experienced the pain, suffering and falling in and out of love that life offers. They accept the challenges because that is the essence of living. Poetry is the language of heart; it might differ from one tongue to the other, but it will always sing the life’s song in a melody of quivering strings of a violin, sitar, or as 'Bauls of Bengal' sing: 'floating on the chariot of life.' The book, If Life Was a Dream, is indeed a thought-provoking, unique, and compelling read.
