Recollections ...
I shall, forever, remain grateful to my father who introduced me to the wonderful world of poetry erarly in life. I happened to see a notebook of his poems that he had composed when he was in High School during pre-independence times. All those poems were replete with patriotic fervour, sounding the cry of every average Indian for freedom from foreign rule. It was by reading them that I felt an intense love both for the motherland and poetry.
Love for nature was developed by the environment of the small hill town where I spent my childhood. A place, where waking up to the view of a magnificent Himalayan range bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, was an everyday bliss. I also witnessed beautiful but not so pleasant Winters followed by the most enjoyable Spring and Summer. Dense pine woods close by, and multiple streams appearing every here and there during the rainy season were objects of pleasure and wonderment simultaneously. I cannot say when I fell in love with nature, but, it is true that this childhood fascination kept growing steadily with time and finally merged with another equally strong passion for poetry, And these poems are but the outcome of that deep-set combined impression. Though composed much later in life, they can be defined as '' emotions recollected in tranquillity '' in the words of William Wordsworth.
I leave this small collection to the lovers of nature poetry, with a hidden wish to hear from someone that I have not wasted time in creating it.
Indu Nautiyal
Dehradun,
Uttarakhand
February, 2021
