Title: Kabir - An Inward Journey
The blurb reads-
“Kabir — An Inward Journey weaves a soulful tale of Kabir, a young wanderer grappling with grief in the mystical land of India. Inspired by the verses of Sant Kabir Das, he embarks on an introspective odyssey, seeking solace and self-discovery. His physical and spiritual journey through the villages, towns, and cities of India culminates in a reunion that celebrates renunciation, acceptance, enlightenment, and the enduring power of love.”
As the title implies, Kabir - An Inward Journey by Sweta Tiwari is a tormenting, yet riveting journey of a boy, that transcends its brevity to offer a profound exploration of survival and learning. The narrative gracefully shifts focus from the voids of maternal influence to Kabir’s challenges and triumphs, emphasising the universal theme of individual growth within supportive shells. The story starts, when the boy Kabir at the tender age of eight, is happily nestled with his nuclear family of four in a small house in one of the happy lanes of Kashi. Over sensitive and spiritually awestruck with the verses of Sant Kabir Das, Kabir’s observation towards life is prodigious. As his life progresses and his most loved ones wane off, Kabir’s antithetic soul compels him to choose a path of his own and create his own story. The deaths of mothers represent the symbolic significance of conveying the characters’ maladjusted emotions and the challenges they face. The importance of a woman in life, whether she is a mother, wife, daughter, or lover, is very significant and draws a fine line throughout the story till the end. Each struggling phase of Kabir as the story progresses, keeps on introducing characters who are none but blessings in disguise.
Meeting with Alvin, who is devastated after the demise of his mother, stirs all of Kabir’s emotions to resonate with what he has gone through. Alvin slowly replaces the void of Kabir’s brother who was once the most loved one in Kabir’s life. But fate departed them in two different directions to curve their journeys and write their own stories. Even “Sir” enters Kabir’s life as the father figure - the father whom Kabir has left alone in the distant village where they had forcefully shifted to and settled after the demise of his grandfather. A room full of books turns out to be the best friend to Kabir, who leaves his schooling midway and his home, to face the unseen challenges of life when his grandmother constantly keeps on pressurising his father to remarry after Kabir’s mother succumbs to the struggles of the rural life. Each character in the novel incorporates subtle yet powerful symbols, including the dreams that often haunt Kabir, his sixth sense that indicates an omen, and the piece of cloth that he carries from the first day he left his first home in Kashi with his family. This piece of cloth has a very strong significance in Kabir’s life as it holds all his emotional attachment to his family, mainly his mother. Life is unpredictable, and Kabir fathoms this harsh truth at a very early age. The most precious part of the book is the feeling of love that glorifies Kabir’s life after meeting Mehreen. Every love story is not meant to end happily ever after, but the real essence stands in how the feeling platonically travels in the hearts -- the author marveled at it, here.
Smita Tiwari’s intricate detailing and illustrious flow of writing, give the readers a picturesque view that artfully weaves together. Her command over the language and vast knowledge of vocabulary are immensely praiseworthy. Though at times, repeating the same kind of events slows down the pace of reading, in no time, it engages the reader again with her flawless writing skill. Smita, very skilfully and parallelly, interweaves the verse of Sant Kabir Das with the journey of Kabir, uplifting the genre of the book to a spiritual and rhetorical piece that keeps on guiding the righteous path of life. Thus the novel Kabir, as it says -- 'an inward journey' -- as it truly justifies, is not only a journey but a realisation of how the struggles and experiences of life lead to growth and maturity.
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