“Tere aane ki kabhi etebar nahi isliye bejhijhak intezaar karte hain” (I hardly believe you would oblige and come over. So my dear without batting an eyelid, I will wait for you).
This is one of the many compositions from Aman Deep Chatha’s latest book- “Ahbaab” (friends or dear ones), who steals time away from hard number crunching on a busy day at the office to writing flourishes in her free time. Chatha is serving as a Principal Accountant General (Audit) in Delhi but her love for poetry gives her a deeper human connection that shapes her outlook towards life. A passion that began in her early school days when she read out verses to school friends, soon blossomed into a lifelong "silsila" (tradition) of writing poetry. She first gave shape to her writing by publishing her first book in 2009. “Ahbaab” is her seventh book and is a compilation of couplets and haikus in Urdu and Hindi and carries an English translation. Evocative headings guide the reader through the book, allowing for a deeper connection between the couplets on facing pages and encouraging the reader to consider the poems not just individually, but also in conversation with each other, enriching the overall experience.
Her decision to translate her own Urdu poetry with the help of her family for "Ahbaab", ensured a profound connection between the original emotions and their English counterparts, making the book accessible to a wider audience. Poetry came naturally to the poet, and she felt a deep connection to capturing the essence of the human experience through her verses.
Chatha’s philosophy is simple, once she has exhausted all that she has to write, she wants to move from writing to a more reflective state of simply " bas mehsoos karte gaye” (to go on feeling). The book offers a glimpse into Chatha's literary world and sparks insightful discussion about her work within the Urdu poetry landscape. It is a celebration of human connection and experiences, written with warmth and intensity so that readers feel a sense of kinship as if it were addressed to them, as if they were Chatha’s "ahbaab".
Title: Ahbaab
Author: Aman Deep Chatha
Publisher: Ferntree Publishers
Pages: 120
Price: Rs 400
