Book Review: Circus Folks & Village Freaks by Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal

Title- Circus folk & Village Freaks

Author- Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal

Publisher- Vishwakarma Publications

Format- Hardcover

Pages- 155

Year- 2018

Genre- Poetry

Rating- 4.1/5

The genre of poetry is very close to my heart partly because I love to express my feelings through poetry too. The book falls into the category of those rare books which demands your heart (and not the brain) to relish its artistic flavour. The feeling cannot be expressed through words. The stories are really heart-touching and the book reminds me of Amarendra Chakrabarty's Bengali children's book "Hiru Dakat" (Bandit Hiru) which I read in my childhood. Like that book, here also the stories are told as narrative poems in rhyming couplets.

Maybe the book touches my heart more because it reminds me of my encounter with an Assamese boy at a Circus in Purulia who shared his pathetic life story with me.Through him I also got a chance observe the poor condition they live in small smelly tents. In short, I can only say that for giving us a 40 minute entertainment show they sacrifice a lot.

The narrative poems bears a tune of sadness in them. Infact, the way each of the story unfolds remind me of the very practice of creating an air of suspense before the entrance of the performers at the earlier circus shows, who are actually normal people but the stories associated with them makes them really unique or freak to be precise.Besides, I have discovered multiple layers of meaning in the poems.

The poetess has also portrayed some current issues like the Devadasi Tradition, which is actually nothing but the exploitation of women in the name of religion.

I particularly like the poems "Urvashi, The Devadasi", " Jeeva, The Elephent Man", and " The Circus Master" for they portrays the reality.

I recommend this book to all the poetry lovers and I am sure you will find some valuable insights from the book.

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