ONKAR SHARMA

EXPLORING THE HUMAN PSYCHE

BY ADAM KLUGER

How did Literary Yard get started?

In 2013, I was looking out for journals to submit some of my works. I discovered that most of the print-oriented journals had limitations and had reservations to entertain submissions from new, budding authors. This forced me to think about the challenges new authors might be facing to get their works showcased or published. As a result, I started Literary Yard, to give writers, poets, and essayists a global platform. Today, it’s a global platform that accepts all genres regardless of the author’s literary background.

Who are your biggest literary influences?

Thinkers, poets, and authors who have over the years shaped my thought-process and given direction to my writing are great masters like Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, T.S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, WB Yeats, Robert Frost, Khalil Gibran, among others. But more than them, I’m affected by the people around me, people whom I daily collide with at the metro station, at a grocery store, down the road, at a barbershop, or at a restaurant. My writing or poetry muscles its way through the nitty-gritty of daily life to scout for universal instances that ferment long enough in my psyche to be served as poetical wine. Songs of Suicide reflects this. The lead and the longest poem in the collection ‘Panchatatva – the five elements’ was in the works for almost a decade. The poem has been structured into five parts to denote five stages of the human psyche and conscience. The word ‘panchatatva’ comes from Sanskrit, where “panch” stands for five and “tatva” means elements. As per Hinduism or Sanatan belief, everything on Earth is composed of five basic elements or the “panchamahabhutas”. These elements are: Akash (Sky or Space), Vayu (Air), Jal (Water), Agni (Fire) and Prithvi (Earth). If you read through the five parts have been titled as per these elements. Without one element, life will not look like the way we see it.

What’s your new book about?

Songs of Suicide is my naive attempt to empathize with poor souls, who go through atrocious circumstances and unbearable pain so much so that suicide remains the only option for them. I’ve endeavored to get into their psyche and feel the agony that pushes them to the edge and the ledge of life. However, through this collection, in no way, I vouch for such an extreme step. I simply want people to understand the mental state of a suicidal person and refrain from taking anything that can drive them away from life. Instead, Songs of Suicide wants people to catch the subtlest hints that a suicidal person is leaving around. Deciphering those hints is a challenge but an important part of our attempt to saving their life. Timely action can save a precious life. As per WHO, every year 800,000 people commit suicide globally. That said, suicide is a pandemic of a graver scale and magnitude which is eating humanity faster than any disease. Even if we find a vaccine for the COVID-19 in the coming months, the vaccine for suicide remains out of the picture. It’s only empathy and an attempt to allow the other person to share their pent-up feelings openly that can save a suicidal person. The poems in Songs of Suicide aren’t merely a manifestation of sadness and agony. The poems blend all emotions. There is love, longing, desire, loneliness, worthlessness, sadness, disgust, and despair, but above all hope and a helping hand. I’ve picked up universal instances of suicide to develop an understanding of the anguished whom all of us might have seen or heard of attempting to kill themselves. In essence, my objective in writing this collection is to heal.

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