Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Protest poetry on exploitation of the girl-child

Child Prostitute
another dawn collapsed
she lay clutching at her coverlet
the night stream
of her soft silk hair
assaulted by
the fury of passion

virginity lost
her defiled body and mind
try to comprehend
the traces of pain
left behind
by the wicked night
brown buds of her breasts
yet to flower,bitten raw
by a savage lust
for young flesh

he steps out of the
eerie silence of the brothel
with not even a pretence of remorse
that she will never know
the soft colours of romance
or the embrace of freedom

fear,tears,agony
are the only expressions
of life today
as the attack of
the double-edged sword
of untimely death and disease
waits in the shadows
of coffined splendour
and remains a permanent probability.

We are secular
the dalit quenches his thirst
at her doorstep
showers blessings
and moves on

purity of caste destroyed
the act declared illegitimate
a legitimate reason is found
to disrobe,beat,abuse
a double resonance of violence echos
as her soft palms are branded
with burning embers

around the corner
at a pre-election meet
the vulture in white, hands folded
proclaims
we stand united,unbeaten
for
we are secular.

Cinderella.
trapped in time’s turns re-turns
the orphan starts on
a treacherous journey

ravenous half-humans
lurk at every corner

her footsteps falter
through corridors of fear
life learns to worship pain

she accepts defeat,almost
when residual embers
of often-dreamt burnt dreams
rise up and soar high
in a leaping orange flame
to challenge history?

a just-nascent longing
dances in Cinderella’s dainty shoes.

Caste
victim of inhuman intentions
she sits huddled in disbelief
in red and purple grief
nerves taut as kite strings
life paralysed
in the infinite stillness of time

fragments of fugitive voices
echo in the child-woman’s ears
the divine marriage with the village deity
orchestrated by powerful landlords
breeds yet another scarred slave

she remains the daytime untouchable
yet feasted upon
in night’s treacherous lanes
to satiate animal desires
for God gave her a different colour

shivers run down
the grieving dawn’s spine
a witness to her
mutilated yet- to-flower breasts
the hazy mist fails to conceal
its shame-hung face
as the oozing red flows down
her trembling legs
to the growing dark stain
on the indifferent hand woven rug

pain-laden echos of dry dreams
haunt uncertain metaphors
of still-born tomorrows.

Cookie-woman

alluring manicured roundness
chocolate and raisin studded,
the cookie was once
a shapeless mass,
a function of
the oven’s volcanic fury
of the master baker’s
no-mercy sweeping gestures

woman,born, reborn
and born again
all in one birth
a function of man’s desire
seeking sense in
sometimes-loved
othertimes-ignored gestures
shaped, chiseled,
to suit her master,
is the manicured cookie
relished bite by bite until
dreams defeated,
she is a shapeless mass once more.

Child Bride

her first smile of freedom
takes shape in the music of
her kaleidoscopic glass bangles—
dream come true
the bangles belong to her

but they are crushed into
a thousand fragments
under the weight of
his naked unleashed passion
on the very first night
she’s stifled in the punjent smell
of loveless desire.

the broken remnants of glass
scatter multiple colours
on the crumpled bedsheet
but mark her innocence
with only red.
like a million arrows shot at once
her shrieks of terror
pierce the uncanny silence
of the dark expanse outside.

Sold

Guilt creeps in
the broken mirror reflects
ruthless desire
in the morbid half-light
of the dingy room

*henna yet to dry
virginity huddled in surrender
she’s a fragile bloom fresh
in a dark cellar

under a faded innocent skirt
the brown skin, perfect
the only asset of a family
imprisoned in poverty
for years uncounted
she was sold in marriage yesterday

a liquid ache under her skin
spreads insidiously
as he advances, wearing
an ugly smile of anticipation
his cold confident virility
a sharp contrast
to her tragic trembling lips

music of falling rain
on the window pane
in discordance with helpless screams
she had just lived her first death.

Peace poems of Dr Rita Malhotra on display at John Lennon Tower,Iceland

Peace
distant sea-gulls
trace the homeward path
across silent skies, boundless
above the infinite silver expanse,
draped in swathes of tranquility
harvest of peace!

desert-scape of thoughts
sense of reality lost in
rocking rhythms of nature
soulful brush-strokes of quiet calm
on the mind’s canvas
oasis of peace!

rose and marigold petals
at the temple door and
the embrace of a thousand gods
tame the racing, unheeding time
metamorphosed sensitivity!

in the chorus of the burbling brook,
rustling leaves ,the sailing breeze
and time’s soft footfalls
dreams wake up to the
salutation of quietude!

overcome by a finite sense of completeness
realization dawns that
peace is not just a road
nor a direction
peace is an eternal journey.

Elsewhere-land
the raft recedes
from the hammered land,
a screaming earth
and blood-raining skies

I leave behind my ripped roots,
the absent coherence
of a people
trapped in hissing flame,
in soot-black fog
of rising smoke.
I leave behind the sinking earth
where evil-tainted wretched roads
lie buried beneath
sediments of human history

memory lingers awhile
before being swept away
by the tide of time

I seek refuge
in the ship’s beckoning arms
as it sets sail
to the else where-land
the land of peace.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Complete Profile

Brief Biography of Dr. Rita Malhotra

A Mathematician by profession, Dr Rita Malhotra is also a poet , essayist and translator(French to English). She is currently a part of the Post Graduate Faculty at the Department of Mathematics, University of Delhi and “HOD Mathematics” at Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi. She is a PhD. in Mathematics from the same university and has been a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Mathematics at The University of Paris IX, Dauphine on a French Government Fellowship. She has published several research papers in India and abroad and has presented them at various International Conferences. Recently she was invited to participate at a Round Table on World Class Universities as part of a series of seminars on Higher Education. Poetry is a passionate avocation. Her concern for the girl child and her pain at the exploitation of woman are reflected in many of her creations.
Specialisation: Operations Research
Academic Qualification:
*Post Doctoral fellow at University OF Paris 1X
*Ph. D. Mathematics, University of Delhi.
*Two Year-Diploma in French, University of Delhi, 1st rank in University
*M. Sc. Mathematics University of Delhi, 2nd rank in University
*B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, University of Delhi, 4th rank in University
*Completion of 3 levels of Intensive French at CLA (Language Institute) Besancon, France,
* Malhotra is a member of the Round Table Group called Café-Matinee at the FIRC,Embassy of France in New Delhi.
SCHOLARSHIPS / FELLOWSHIPS/AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS
*Offered Post Doctoral Fellowship for one year at University of New Brunswick, Canada (1986)
*Post Doctoral French Government Fellowship during 1985-1986 at University of Paris (IX), France
*National Scholarship by the Ministry of Education India for pursuing Post Graduate Studies
*National Science Talent Scholarship for studies up to Ph. D. level awarded by NCERT Delhi.
SPECIAL MENTION
Dr. Malhotra’s algorithm on solving a Bi-criteria network problem (No. 7) has been included in the Bibliography of ‘ Algorithm / Software’ in ZENTRALBLATT FOR MATHEMATIK HARDENBERGSTRABE, BERLIN.
Dr. Malhotra is included in the ninth edition of “International Who’s Who of Professional & Business Women” by the American Biographical Institute.
She has authored the following books of Mathematics:
1. A first course in Lattice Theory and Boolean Algebra.
2. Chief editor of the research-level book “Combinatorial Optimization, Some Aspects.”
Malhotra is a life member of The Operational Research Society of India.
LITERARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Dr. Malhotra was awarded the 2003 Michael Madhusudan Millennium award for poetry and education by The Michael Madhusudan Academy.
Twice recipient of the Editor’s Choice Award in the North American Open Poetry contest (1994,1999).
Her poems are widely published and are translated into Chinese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali. Recently her peace-poems were selected for display at the Westminster Arts Council, New Westminster and the same is being sent as part of 50 poems to Iceland to be on display at The John Lennon Peace Tower there.
· Malhotra was an invited speaker at the Poetry Convention in Chennai, India in October 2008, jointly organized by World Poetry Society Intercontinental, The Soka Ikeda College ,Chennai, and the BSG Group in honour of Dr Daisaku Ikeda. She addressed the gathering with her paper on Ikeda’s poetry entitled “On the path to peace”
· She was one of the two Indian Invitee delegates at the International writers conference at Belgrade in September 2006 and September 2007.Her poems and an academic paper titled “From cry to prayers in poetry,” translated into Serbian were presented at the 2006 conference and her paper on “Women and poetry” was presented at the 2007 conference. The June 2007 issue of The Serbian literary newspaper Knjizevne Novine published a full column of her poems translated into Serbian. She was interviewed on Serbian television during the 2007 44th International conference of writers in Belgrade.
· Her translations from the French into English of the poems of Jean Pierre are published in Academos 2006 and 2007 and the July issue of the literary journal The Seventh Quarry. Wales.
·Dr Malhotra has translated the African-French poet Alain Mabanckou into English and was invited to read her translations with Poet Mabanckou at the FIRC (French Embassy) for a reading of the same in March 2008
· Her essay on “Tagore the Poet and beyond” has been translated into Serbian and published in the largest selling daily newspaper of Serbia “Vecernje Novosti in MAY 2008.It was also broadcast by the National Channel of All India Radio.
· Dr Malhotra was one of the ten Indian invitee-delegates at the World Poetry Conference in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in March 2005 and she is part of the Chinese-English Anthology of Indian poetry entitled A GOLDEN TREASURY OF MODERN INDIAN POETRY published in Taiwan.
·She was part of the Indian contingent at the 21st World congress of poets at Sydney in October’2000.Her poem called “child prostitute” got a special mention. The same poem was included by Swansea poet Peter Thabit Jones in a programme on Abolition of slavery at Wales in August 2007 together with American poet Maya Angelou and Raymond R. Patterson
· Invitee-Participant at The International Poetry Symposium, Washington D.C. 1994
· Dr. Malhotra was a member of the jury at The All India Poetry Competition 2005 held in Bangalore, organized by Poets International as also at the Inter-School poetry competition held in Delhi in 2006.
· Published poetry books include three individual selections of verse entitled ‘Reflections’ (1997), ‘Images of Love’ (2003), and ‘I am not your woman and other poems’ (2007), besides ‘In The Company of Poets’( with eight other poets from India ), ‘ Golden Treasury of Modern Indian Poetry’ a Chinese-English Anthology published in Taiwan,2005(11 Indian poets included with The President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam, former Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and Shri Gulzar.)
· Life member of the Poetry Society of India and the Poetry Club of India. Former Executive member of the latter.
· Former honorary poetry editor of the International Web Magazine called BanglaHaat.com
· Poems have been broadcast on The English Talk Programme of All India radio since the year 2000.She was interviewed on the National Channel of AIR in May 2006 for her work in the field of Mathematics and Poetry. Her poems were recorded in May 2007 for the General Overseas Service of AIR.
·Talk on Contributions of Indian Mathematicians in the English-Talk Programme of AIR broadcast in March’2004.
·On the occasion of woman’s day Dr Malhotra has been invited to give talks on the exploitation of woman, woman’s empowerment by The Lioness Club, Gurgaon
. Dr Malhotra’s talk on “Mathematics and Art” was broadcast on the National Channel of AIR in September 2007 and she spoke on “Tagore the poet and beyond” for the same channel in May 2008.
· Dr Malhotra interviewed senior eminent poet Rakshat Puri about his contribution to poetry on the National Channel of All India Radio in September2007.
.Literary compositions and other articles widely published in Literary journals and anthologies in India and abroad :To mention a few……Indian Literature (published by Sahitya Academy),Seventh Quarry(Wales), Poesis (Romania),Tonight(An Anthology of World Love Poetry, South Africa), Twilight Ending(USA),Crossing Borders(Australia),Best poems of 95(USA),Best Poems and Poets of 2001(USA),Dance on The Horizon(USA),The Chinese Poetry Intl Quarterly(China),Golden Treasury Of Modern Indian Poetry(Taiwan),Point Barre (Mauritius),Knjizevne Novine, Vecernje Novosti,(Serbia), Tonight (Anthology of world love poetry,South-Africa),Hudson View(USA), Muse of Murmur,The Indian Pen, Poets International, Journal of the Poetry Society of India, The Quest, The Eternity, Poet, Contemporary-Vibes,Verse-Universe, Day- Spring, Kavya Bharati, Sun, The Pioneer,Academos,Sampark Journal of global understanding (Serbia Issue).
· Dr Malhotra as Convenor of “Expressions” The Creative Writing Society,KNC, University of Delhi has initiated a programme called “Poetry Across Cultures” under the aegis of which she has organized programmes on Indian/Finnish poetry, Indian/Romanian Poetry ,Indian/American and Indian/Serbian poetry with support and encouragement from the respective Embassies in New Delhi. These programmes are a showcase of confluence of thoughts across cultures and are aimed at diminishing dichotomies between the East and the West and a global appreciation and understanding.
· Malhotra’s literary essays include: ON THE PATH TO PEACE(Ikeda's poetry), RABINDRANATH TAGORE THE POET AND BEYOND, WOMEN AND POETRY, ACROSS THE REALM OF SHORT VERSE, CRY TO PRAYERS:A POETIC JOURNEY, SERBIAN/INDIAN POETRY: SOME THOUGHTS, THE POETRY OF VASKO POPA.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
·Research Publications (Mathematics)
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS0. Sonia & Rita Malhotra: 2004 Two stage Interval time Minimization Transportation Problem, ASOR Bulletin, Vol 23 No.1,pp 2-14.(Australia)1.Sonia & Rita Malhotra: 2002 A Polynomial Algorithm for a Two-Stage Time Minimizing Transportation Problem, OpsearchVol.39, No 5 & 6 Pp 251-2662.Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri: 2001 Multi-objective Network Flow Problem, International Conference on Mathematical Modeling, Tata Mc-Graw Hill Pub. Co. Ltd. Pp 297-3013.Renu Rani & Rita Malhotra: 1995 Multi-Criteria Integer Linear Fractional Prog. Problem, Optimization 1995 Vol 35 Pp 373- 389(Germany)4. Renu Rani & Rita Malhotra 1992 Multi-Criteria Integer Linear programming Problem, Cahiers du C.E.R.O. Volume 34 (Belgium)5.Bansal U. & Arora, S.R.1986 Cost Ranking in a Network Flow Problem, Systems Analysis and Policy Studies- Tata Mc Graw Hill Pp 35-426. Rita Malhotra 1982 Variants of the Assignment Problem Golden Jubilee conference on Quality Control, Reliability and Operations Research. Beligian Journal of OR.(Belgium)7.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1985 Variants of the three dimensional Bottleneck Assignment Problem.(Optimization), Mathematische Operations forschung and Statistik 16(2) Pp.245-256 (Germany)8.Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri 1984 Bi-criteria Network Problem. Cahiers du C.E.R.O,26 95-102(Beligium)9.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1983 Time Minimizing Solid Assignment Problem. Sociedad Argentine de information E Investigation operative(Argentina)10.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1984 Variants of the Time Minimization Assignment Problem Trabajos de Estadistica vide Investigacion Operativa, Pp. 331-338(Spain)11. Rita Malhotra 1983 On Hammer’s Method of finding a least cost optimal solution to a Time Minimization Transportation Problem, Cahiers du C.E.R.O., 25, 75-80(Belgium)12.Rita Malhotra, H.L. Bhatia &M.C.Puri 1982 Bi-criteria Assignment Problem, Opsearch,19(2), 84-96(India)13. Rita Malhotra 1982 A note of Bi-criteria Transportationproblem, ZOR 26,Pp.254-261(Germany)14. Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri 1981 Pricing of Bottlenecks at Optimal Time in aTransportation Problem. Scientific Management of Transport Systems, edited by N.K. Jaiswal, North Holland Publishing Company Pp.254-261

Across the realm of short verse..essay

Across the realm of short verse
(An odyssey)
by
Rita Malhotra



Time does not linger in today’s fast paced world.There is no scope for reflection, contemplation or idealism considering the complexities in every aspect of life.Even though purists in the academic world may not always agree, we poets are destined to break away from certain poetic practice and say what we wish to say in as condensed a form as possible conciseness however demands skill and entails the use of oblique reference, suggestion, wit and balance. The poet has to be a careful craftsman for in addition to giving a final poetic shape to his lines, he also has to be concerned about the lyrical quality of the poem and all this in a very few words. The order of the day is no superfluous usage of words, no obligatory confirmation to poetic metres, not a word extra. Art now is not so close a form with strict norms and defined virtues. An open and explicit verse may have all the poetic qualities. In fact Lawrence wrote that “it is the hidden emotional pattern that makes poetry and not the obvious form.” The use of metaphor and allusion that trigger elaboration and interpretation of the unsaid , is inevitable in short verse form. Expression in “vers- libre” or free verse does not mean freedom from poetic form. “Here the poet’s sensibility is at work besides his individual sense of image and metaphor,” as the eminent poet and journalist Rakshat Puri says. I would add that the pulse and rhythm of recitation also gives credibility to the poem.

As one knows, Japanese lyric poets are exceptional as far as compression of their poetry is concerned. In the words of Yves Bonnefoy “No people has ever equaled the Japanese in echoing reality in the consonance and dissonance of a few words.” In fact the Japanese Haiku, a short verse form is a live genre and a great lyric form having developed from ancient Korean and Chinese verse forms like Sedoka, Waka, Tanka and Renga.The 7th century song-writing form Sedoka was used to reveal riddles and was written in a question-answer format. Waka was a serious form of poetry composed to celrbrate love, victories in battle and for religious reasons. The classical Tanka is a form of Waka and are mood verses with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure.Tanka means a short poem and was used as a means of communication between lovers and friends. It often contains metaphor and uses personification and other poetic devices.The Hokku meaning opening verse originated as an abbreviated version of classical Tanka poetry.It consists of three parts of 5-7-5 syllables. A great master in this tradition, the famous Basho writes

An old pond
A frog leaps in
the sound of nature.

Eleven words but the swiftness of craft fascinates the senses especially the clear images that communicate with the reader.To my mind it is the symbol of life-going-on.A poignant calm setting is soothing to the ear.Another familiar Basho classic brings to the fore a marvel of the haiku technique and short verse in general:

Harvest moon
Walking around the pond
All night long.

One admires here the precision of expression and the usage of symbol and image.This is a kind of contemplation of times gone and summing up of life.In both the poems the relationship to a tradition is maintained with captivating efficacy. The poems are multilayered though the literal meaning is clear.

In the Japanese language each syllable is spoken at almost the same pitch and so the absence of stress-rhythm is felt but the flow of lines and the pause create the rhythm
With time the tanka form became ossified and the waka was transformed into linked verse called Renga.However a poetic form called Haikai emerged as a distinct genre around the 14th century.It laid emphasis on verbal wit.Basho and Onitsura were masters of haikai writers of which Hokku was a significant part.

Another great master in the same tradition was Yosa Buson whose poems are visually powerful and seem to be in love with colour.One would agree that poetry should not be a function of subjectivity which usually creeps into judgements of readers.Even where a poet constructs a myth, one looks for the creation of sounds of music.According to poet John Logan “Poetry is a ballet for the ear.”It is the right permutation of words that create a masterpiece.In short verse this requires immense skill which is visible in the following haikai of this great poet

Among twenty snowy mountains
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird

The apt choice of words leaves one mesmerized.The depiction of sheer stillness of the place could not have been better in such a concentrated form.In the vastness of white only black is visible and amidst that black the movement of the eye.These lines seem to lend voice to a beautiful work of art, a dialogue between the two art forms of painting and poetry.Another expression of this artist-poet leaves one in awe of his skill of combining discipline with a sense of freedom.

Lighting one candle
With another candle
Spring evening

Here the first two lines could be interpreted as talking about continuity as light creates light and this movement seems a propagation of celebration.Here the location in nature is evident and the mention of spring evokes a diversity of colours and the associated joy.These haikai , a significant category of short verse, are beautifully crafted and their meaning is likely to change according to the perspective lent to them.Both give a powerful sense human place in the cyclical movement of the cosmos.Even though no new popular style followed,an individualistic approach to haikai was followed by the humanist poet Issa Kobayushi. He has often been described as a Whitman or a Neruda in miniature perhaps because his poems often portray life’s smallest creatures like the flies, crickets etc.On the other hand there is a certain rage against injustice and an acute sense of pain as in the following poem where the poet captures the emotional upheaval and anguish of a mother.

Nursing her child
The mother
counts its fleabites

The nostalgia for normal life and a kind of helpless surrender are very moving.They awaken the lyrical impulses of the reader.As a spontaneous reaction I couldn’t help penning the following lines:

Sense of pain intense
In dry night’s dry dreams
The day ageless.

The economy of language and suitability of images are also evident in another very sensitive haikai by Issa:

A dry riverbed
Glimpsed
By lightning

Haikai entered a period of decline till the emergenceof Mashaoka Shiki who created a style of reformed hokku (called Shesei meaning sketching from life).Shiki was impressed by western culture and removed the Buddhist influence on writing hokku,a term he finally discarded and called his revised verse form haiku.The haiku is often referred to as an epigrammatic Japanese verse form and the elusive flavour lies in its touch and tone The term haiku is also used for foreign adaptations(In 1949 it was introduced to the west by R.H.Blyth). Unlike traditional haiku poets however, modern poets consider any subject matter suitable and emphasize on personal freedom(Here one would like to mention that when the haiku structure is used to comment on the human condition or to relate to subjects other than seasons or nature the poem is called Senryu.)
Haiku has also made its presence felt in Indian verse which surprises because short verse forms like Rubaayi in Urdu,Dohra in Punjabi and the like already exist and are quite popular.

Agroup of poets called Imagists headed by Ezra Pound and influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry,said that poetic ideals are best expressed by actual rendering of concrete images to convey different shades of emotions.Some of Pound’s poems capture the haiku quality.His short poem “Fan Piece for Her Imperial Lord” is one such creation:

O fan of white silk
Clear as frost on the grass blade
You are also laid aside

The minimalism and density of the images is amazing.The softness of silk represents a delicacy of touch contrasting with the crystalline bitterness of frost,chilly overtones of white and frost suggest in the fan, a perfection born out of unadornedness---they combine into a self-contained whole. Interpretation of the white could be specific to individual circumstances.The white silk to me refers to a fragile purity or virginity.The word “for”gives an added perspective that suggests an offering to the Imperial Lord who has cast her aside.
Some opine that in short verse a needed factor is a title which usually sets the scene as has been done in Pound’s poem.But I would like to disagree for I believe that a title could limit the poem whereas it should be open to different interpretations.

(It is rightly concluded that since theological and philosophical thought has occupied the European mind to such an extent that their poems are rather long.)( However) the French poet Rimbaud’s short poems offer a great model for today’s age.The interest in haiku in France is strong even today.It is an awakening to a fundamental reference and shall remain at the centre of western poetic thought.In his lines from L’Eternite he attempts an intimate understanding of eternity in an amazingly concise form:

It is found again
What? Eternity
It is the sea gone with the sun.

A beautiful juxtaposition of images. The sea connotes infinity.Its vastness has no beginning and no visible end and just like eternity its limitless expanse and fathomless depths symbolize the mysteries of eternity. The image of the sea in Dickinson’s poems comes to mind where the sea is an image of a state of mindbeyond the borders of waking consciousness.The sea gone with the sun also represents an expanse of darkness portraying perhaps the time of life after death which is eternity.So much said in so few words---a short verse carving its own path through skillful use of language.The journey would be incomplete without mention of some other significant short verse forms like the Korean Sijo, the Cherita ,the American Cinquain etc

Sijo is a lyrical form similar to haiku in its brevity and nature imagery.It is an example of our western poets delving into the beauty and simplicity of Asian forms.Sijo retains a strong relationship to the European ballad in its lyric patterns.In a Sijo the final line usually begins with a surprise or twist of meaning, sound or structure.In the following Sijo by Karkow this tradition is honoured:

Carved high in cliffs of Hindukush
Statues of Lord Buddha loomed
Five centuries they gazed serenely
Massive across green valleys
Ravaged now ,piles of stone
Can wild flowers ever hide the wounds?

The atmosphere is built up with a vivid description.The wound on stone is actually the wound on the mind which the beauty of nature can never make up.

The Cherita created by ai li is an offshoot of the haiku and renku experience and thus maintains the fragment quality.It usually has a story but is often lyrical as in:

After seeing you off
Taking the path along
The canal
A nestle of leaves
Underfoot.

These lines seem a kind of recall, nostalgia-laden where the togethernss of walking together is remembered with sadness.

The American Cinquain enjoys the freedom of poetic musical rhythms with a specific number of beats.But the lullaby cinquain is different from haiku as it is not a simple sketch of nature and allows for the poet’s freedom and thoughts.It is about something concrete and builds towards a climax;

Across the street I went
To drink at the new bar
I drank she smiled we talked I thought
Nice bar.

I conclude with a brief reference to the Crystalline Verse which is a haiku analogue.The poem is a two line verse and serves the function of the Japanese kireji or cutting word.Often poets are inspired by another poet’s lines resulting in linked verses.

Since in short verse, opportunities for lyricism is very limited so one has to rely on extra-poetical understanding to provide depth and emotional resonance.This fact only evokes awe and admiration for short verse forms and their writers.In today’s technologically advanced life ,people’s worth,their outlook,ambitions and values are all governed by time.This is an oblique hint for us poets to take inspiration from haiku and other short verse forms and express ourselves in forms that are compact and condensed.The astounding variety of stylizations found in short verse forms assures us that this is not impossible.

Bibliography:

1.Deborah Russel-Short Verse, A Woman’s Perspective

2.Katherine Washburn, John S Major-The World Poetry

3.Twentieth Century Poetry in English-Michael Schmidt,Rupa and Co.,The Harvill Press

4.Parthasarathy,R –Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets,Oxford University Press,Delhi

5.Rakshat puri-A Time for Short Verse,Reading at Poetry Society of India Meet,1994

6.Rakshat Puri-Blossoms of The Apricot,Virgo Publications,1998

7The Quest,A Literary Journal, Vol. 16 No.2,2002

STONE-SMILE

stone-smile

the riverside rock
laments its mute existence
eyes open, it watches
the riverbank come to life
as lovers nestle
in the shelter of darkness
between walls of the winds

burbling waters wind their way
past the mute riverside stone
touching teasing
sometimes mocking

time arrives,beckons,summons
in a momentary lapse of reason
the stone uproots itself
to embark upon
its course of destiny
obliging time

forging desires, it races ahead
in search of new land
where stones too can smile.

UNMASKED

unmasked

she let him traverse
the mind’s corridors
unchecked, unmasked

nascence of a new bud
lavender fragrance of new blossom
new harmony

passion’s gushing rivers
cascade into
heaving oceans within

kissing his way
into a welcoming world
he absorbs love
given in all earnestness
as if time will never return
love’s horizon stays intact

today an arc from the horizon’s arch
breaks away
the mask drops
the mind bathes in grieving time’s
torrent of tears

today she does not trust her own shadow.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Literary Publications

Books of verse: 1.Reflections, Writers work shop Kolkata
2. Images of Love, Virgo Publications
3. In the Company of Poets (With eight other poets), Sterling Publishers
4. Golden Treasury of Modern Indian Poetry, bilingual English – Chinese Anthology (With ten other poets including former President of India Dr. A.P.J.Kalam, former Prime Minister of India Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee,Poet Gulzar ) , Taiwan
5. I am not your woman and other poems,Sampark publications.

Research Publications

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

0. Sonia & Rita Malhotra: 2004 Two stage Interval time Minimization Transportation Problem, ASOR Bulletin, Vol 23 No.1,pp 2-14.(Australia)

1.Sonia & Rita Malhotra: 2002 A Polynomial Algorithm for a Two-Stage Time Minimizing Transportation Problem, Opsearch
Vol.39, No 5 & 6 Pp 251-266

2.Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri: 2001 Multi-objective Network Flow Problem, International Conference on Mathematical Modeling, Tata Mc-Graw Hill Pub. Co. Ltd. Pp 297-301


3.Renu Rani & Rita Malhotra: 1995 Multi-Criteria Integer Linear Fractional Prog. Problem, Optimization 1995 Vol 35 Pp 373- 389(Germany)

4. Renu Rani & Rita Malhotra 1992 Multi-Criteria Integer Linear programming Problem, Cahiers du C.E.R.O. Volume 34 (Belgium)

5.Bansal U. & Arora, S.R.1986 Cost Ranking in a Network Flow Problem, Systems Analysis and Policy Studies- Tata Mc Graw Hill Pp 35-42

6. Rita Malhotra 1982 Variants of the Assignment Problem Golden Jubilee conference on Quality Control, Reliability and Operations Research. Beligian Journal of OR.(Belgium)

7.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1985 Variants of the three dimensional Bottleneck Assignment Problem.(Optimization), Mathematische Operations forschung and Statistik 16(2) Pp.245-256 (Germany)

8.Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri 1984 Bi-criteria Network Problem. Cahiers du C.E.R.O,26 95-102(Beligium)
9.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1983 Time Minimizing Solid Assignment Problem. Sociedad Argentine de information E Investigation operative(Argentina)

10.Rita Malhotra & H.L. Bhatia 1984 Variants of the Time Minimization Assignment Problem Trabajos de Estadistica vide Investigacion Operativa, Pp. 331-338(Spain)

11. Rita Malhotra 1983 On Hammer’s Method of finding a least cost optimal solution to a Time Minimization Transportation Problem, Cahiers du C.E.R.O., 25, 75-80(Belgium)

12.Rita Malhotra, H.L. Bhatia &M.C.Puri 1982 Bi-criteria Assignment Problem, Opsearch,19(2), 84-96(India)

13. Rita Malhotra 1982 A note of Bi-criteria Transportation
problem, ZOR 26,Pp.254-261(Germany)

14. Rita Malhotra & M.C. Puri 1981 Pricing of Bottlenecks at Optimal Time in a
Transportation Problem. Scientific Management of Transport Systems, edited by N.K. Jaiswal, North Holland Publishing Company Pp.254-261