Enticingly presented, Shahrokh Bulsara’s (pictured) book, titled Echoes of my Heart, A Collection of Verse, is lavishly illustrated with color photographs from Pixabay.com. In addition to around two dozen of his own poems and epigrams, he has included a similar number by others which have provided him with inspiration.
A thread of sadness runs through Bulsara’s poems, with the presence of death palpable. But through the loneliness, loss and longing, love shines through. Despite the heartache expressed, the theme of friendship remains a constant. Though the poems lack literary proficiency, the sentimentality is strongly appealing.
Among the "gems from different poets and writers who have impacted” the author are Kalidasa’s Look to This Day, a salutation to the dawn; Sarojini Naidu’s Nay, Do Not Grieve; William Shakespeare’s well-known passage: "Cowards die many times before their deaths…;” and the old faithfuls that every schoolchild has (or should have) read, Invictus ("I am the captain of my soul”) by William E. Henley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s classic A Psalm of Life ("Lives of great men all…”) with their lilting verse and messages of hope and courage.
A professional tour guide and tour manager, Bombay-based Bulsara describes himself as "a single and happy man with a host of friends in every part of the world.” This is his first book, a "journey of emotions and experience.” The traveler is a "music lover, a self-proclaimed master chef, a scoutmaster and a passionate friend,” as per the note on the author.
Dedicated to Bulsara’s parents Arnavaz and Phiroz and his uncle Khurshed, the book is also in loving memory of a dear friend, Firoza Mehta, who passed away in 2018.
The 92-page, handsome, hardbound volume, in an unusual rectangular format, has been brought out by Madras based Notion Press. It is available on Amazon, priced at Rs 1,010 or directly from the author for Rs 500 plus courier charges. Bulsara may be contacted via email at: Shahrokhbulsara@hotmail.com or on the mobile: +91 9820886198.
SHERENE VAKIL