Random Descent by Jayanta Mahapatra, Third Eye Communication, 2005, 80pp. Rs 145/-

Random Descent was published before Jayanta Mahapatra’s latest book The Lie of the Dawn (2009). The epigraph is a quotation from Sylvia Plath suggesting a long wait for the angel’s rare descent. The Indian poet writes on the sad music of humanity but he has no strong sense of optimism that the angel will descend from the heaven to mitigate the gloominess of the present state of things around him. Jayanta Mahapatra is a realistic poet who is moved by the sufferings, pain, cruelty and poverty of ‘the promised land’.