 The
Indian poet, Manohar Shetty (b. 1953), studied at the University of Bombay
and has been a journalist for more than twenty years now. Shetty, who
lives in Goa, was the editor for eight years of the Goa Today newspaper.
He regularly contributes literary reviews to various newspapers. Shetty
has published three collections of poems: A Guarded Space (1981),
Borrowed Time (1988) and Domestic Creatures. His poems and
short stories have also been published in several Indian and foreign periodicals
and in major anthologies such as The Oxford-India Anthology of Twelve
Modern Indian Poets. The recurring motifs in Shetty's output are animals.
These acquire human countenances in his poems and symbolise human sufferings
and joys. However, the keynote in Shetty's poems is positive. Experiences
help people to learn, give them the opportunity in future to see life
with greater profundity and scope. His poems are full of action and verbs;
the activity of animals and people are part and parcel of the great movement
of nature. Destiny is ultimately formed from it - even though we never
understand it exhaustively. His verse reflects concern for the preservation
of nature, but also a confidence in its ability to heal itself and recover
from damage inflicted by man. |