The applique patched dress of the Fakirs and Dervishes, the wandering minstrels of Bengal, have never failed to intrigue me. There seems to be a sort of mute revolt, a defiance in the use of the patches to mend the wear and tear in the existing dress. A Fakir survives on bare essentials and with every patch used to repair his gown, he seems to send out a message to life- “I shall find a way to fight back.”
The wandering blob of cloud at Igatpuri and Kurseong, the balloon seller selling his ware at the traffic light, the Gulmohur tree blooming amidst the drab concrete or the auto driver wearing the jersey of Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi are the patches that make it easy for me to fight the wear and tear inflicted by life during the journey.
The poems in this book are an outcome of finding those patches around me that help to repair the wear and tear.
Straight From My Heart 