Karan Patade is a multifaceted personality; he is a poet, singer, songwriter, content developer by profession and a lover of artistic expression. His debut book, ‘When I Speak’ is a potpourri of celebration of emotions. The book is basically divided into four parts.
Each part dealing with a certain aspect of human life; the first deals with the apple of knowledge and the orange of dilemma, the second with life describing it as a castle some of its places unexplored, the third with an invitation to mingle in the craters of the poet’s heart which cannot be healed but loved and the fourth dealing with the creation that comes to the authors mind.
The cover page is simple but very attractive due to its inverted title and the word ‘Speak’ been struck through. It gives us a clear impression that there are certain things in our life which we cannot word or give expression to as they are termed as a taboo of our norm of existence.
Each poem is carefully worded and thus it makes for a pleasant and interesting read. Apart from the poet’s natural tendency to explicate various emotions in the poems; the following themes seem to be predominant: pain, chaos within oneself, forgiveness, plea, paradox of life, God, relationship.
The most attractive portions of this poetical journey for me was; its play on words by the poet and the usage of various colours to signify varied things. I experienced a sort of a healing of my deepest pains that I once had undergone. These poems are sure to heal a reader as they would strike a chord and speak for the truth you want to hide. The poet has extensively managed to reveal some secrets of life. The poems that I liked from this book are, ‘The Princess’ Lens,’ ‘A Dog’s Life,’ ‘A Touch Stirs a Heart,’ ‘Mirror,’ ‘Freedom.’
I would like to do a literary appreciation of one of Karan Patade’s poems titled, ‘God’
God
God is my heart
God is my mind
God is my dreams
God is my loins.
Show not your contempt
The wisest would withdraw
The foolish shall perish
God shall always be my immortal shine.
© Karan Patade, 2015. (When I Speak)
Karan Patade makes the most important confession of his life through this poem that God is the most important part of his life. He says that God is his heart, mind, dreams, and loins. These are the things that actually dominate our whole being. This confession seems to be complete and from the bottom of the poet’s heart. The poet also advices one not to show contempt towards God reasoning that the wisest people would refrain from doing so and the most foolish would resort to it and they would perish no doubt in the course of time. The poet in the last line breathes a faith statement that God is his lifeline or an immortal shine; a light that will always glow throughout time and beyond time.
This is certainly a book for all those who love poetry.