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Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors (World Voices)

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This slim chapbook is a quick bite. Poems appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, but linger in consciousness longer than you might think they would. The use of colors is fascinating to the desi mind; we, as one poem remarks, "exist in a hue of experiences."

Another wonderful collection of poems by Sweta. The author brilliantly takes the reader through the life of an Asian woman. I do not have any background in writing or poetry. I enjoy reading good books though and highly recommend this amazing chapbook for one and all. A fantastic read for sure.

Sweta Srivastava Vikram has had another of her poetry collection published recently called Kaleidoscope An Asian Journey of Colours. The Chapbook is made special by the amazing idea behind the poems. Sweta tells the reader the story of color that has the pleasure and pain of growing up, of love and of desire and also of the death of these trancient phases, gradually like a raisin but even in death life has a colour. Sweta's verses lure the readers into the mythical world of Gods and Godesses and the birth of the color in the begining of the book.

'Few suns ago, Latin, the goblet of romantic lexis created

a recipe for color and poured it into verbal-moulds

so the echo could traverse the human orifice, the Ganges' and

Then slowly the poems take a life of their own and although the words are still sweet, the images and metaphors innocent, a sense of forboding looms.

My marigold heart, a few kisses old,

echoes the thunder and confesses

to the transient spell of beauty, tulips -

"Me knows, he wasn't a blunder."

Each color tells a different story within the story of the extraordinary life of an Asian Woman. Red and yellow tells of puberty and wedding, pink of innocent virginity, brown of chocolate of desire, blue when the rocks take her down and

'A smile adorns my visage, an embalmed cadaver rotting

from the inside. Societal worms laying maggots in my soul

and gnawing on them until I relinquish all desire.

I am sixty, not dead; not beige, color me red.'

The most outstanding of all the poems in the boook is 'Reflecting on Iridescence in Mama's Wardrobe'

It has the gaity of a toddler and frivolousness of innocence, same in youth and same in death. The last para sums it all up quiet aptly when the author says she hid behind mother's black saree and 'I'm ready for the next destination' as in life we come from our mother's womb so in death we go back to where we came from and 'Shades halt narration.'

Sweta has woven such a spell with her word usage and the symbolisms that the most complex becomes the simplest of all, just as all colors when mixed, end up being just black. The end that Sweta narrates is not gloomy but something mysterious where words fail to convey meaning.

A fantastic read for sure for the lovers of poetry.

Smita Singh

VAANI Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Sweta Srivastava Vikram on Page Readers (on Blog Talk Radio) about her latest poetry collection, "Kaleidoscope. An Asian Journey of Colors. Sweta talked about her life and how her culture opened up to her a world color and how it plays an important part in life.

What I found interesting is how Sweta brought to light that colors are in fact, markers in ones life. "Reflecting on Iridescense in Mama's Wardrobe takes us through the colors of clothing that are symbolic of a womans life. We all have colors that we relate to - Sweta has just made a connect to colors with her words.

Beautifuly done.

"Colors are the smiles of nature."

~Leigh Hunt

Having recently interviewed Sweta Srivastava Vikram on my blog, Suko's Notebook, after having read Because All is Not Lost, I was thrilled by the opportunity to review her new book of poems, Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors. In the introduction of Kaleidoscope, the author says that her book, part of the World Voices Series, "delves into the implication and philosophy of colors from a Hindu woman's point of view", and that "the color she adorns herself with almost depicts the story of her life". The colors of an Indian woman's wardrobe are certainly significant; they represent her emotional state and thoughts. For example, the color red means marriage, green indicates conception, and white signifies widowhood. In the poem "Reflecting on Iridescence in Mama's Wardrobe", the author uses the colors of a sari, from pink to black, to depict the various stages of life from youth until death. The golden warmth of the third stanza is palpable:

"I hid under mama's yellow sari,

warm, as the sunrays at dawn,

so I could lose myself to words,

write an ode to daffodils,

and pretend I was Wordsworth."

While I am not Hindu, I'm particular when it comes to the color of my clothing, too. During the hot months of summer I tend to wear white, but since it was mild this year I wore blouses in the colors that I find most appealing, bright blues such as cobalt, turquoise, and purples; I rarely wear neutral colored tops because they feel too drab. I'm drawn to certain colors in clothing, and recognize the power of color to influence my mood and outlook. This chapbook goes beyond wardrobe colors, though, and mentions color in a myriad of other ways, directly and indirectly, citing her "soft lungs" and the "skies of London". Each verse is beautifully crafted, expressed in a variety of poetic and verbal forms. I dove into this book of poems quickly and eagerly, then slowed down to savor the words and the images, marveling over Sweta Srivastava Vikram's unique mix of grace, humor, and eloquence, which forms a medley of beauty and color.

It is said that the human eye can identify approximately 10 million different shades of color. Yet how we perceive color depends upon our subjective experiences as well as the wavelength of light. It is no wonder then that Sweta Srivastava Vikram's Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors uses a dazzling spectrum as a meeting point between reader and poet to share the most intimate and human of experiences. Each poem captures authentic emotion that makes Sweta's words so accessible to the modern reader. Essentially, Kaleidoscope is a marriage of ideas and moments that whisper its punch lines and allows the brevity of language to carry the full emotional impact long after the poem has finished.

From a young girl's charming innocence (When daddy tells me grandpa is a star in the sky....I take out my Wonder woman transport..., and ride through optimism to bring him back) to a middle aged woman's defiance (colour me red), this chapbook is the dazzling display of a poet who teases us with fresh imagery and delicate linguistic craftsmanship. The result is a stunning array of 19 poems that transcends the singularities of ethnic identity.