. . . Dew-drops sparkling in joy

Rainbow Pebbles
Pavana Khan

There is profundity in Pavana Khan. And it comes in all the colours of innocence. The proof of all that is in her collection of poetry and prose she so charmingly calls Rainbow Pebbles. In case you did not know, Pavana is in her early teens with grand promise of transiting to adulthood with more of literary thoughts defining her personality. To be sure, there are young people, in the various stages of teenage, who write and will write, often in grand and therefore very appreciable manner. Pavana falls into that category of young people in whom you detect signs of increasing levels of enlightenment as they go along in life.
If poetry is a simple expression of human sentiments, then Pavana gives you simplicity of beauty and thought in plenty. Observe her Inspired by Nature:
The pale blue sky / The glowing sun / The rippling river / The dancing waterfall / The countless flowers / And the peaceful trees / Are all gifts from God / And we are only admirers of nature
There is detachment in the poet here, a sure consciousness that Creation is the handiwork of God, that men and women are but observers who must stand at a distance and admire the festivity all around. And yet these admirers of nature, as Pavana calls them, complete the portrait of nature's grandeur. For without admiration of God's grace, the world does not have very much to offer its inhabitants.
A particular aspect of Rainbow Pebbles is its segmentation into a variety of themes. Nature, Night, Seasons and Haikus are the modalities through which Pavana's poetic sensibilities are reflected in the work. Read these lines from The Night Sky and feel the bonding which Pavana appears to be strengthening in terms of her links with nature:
It looked as if there was a carpet over me / With thousands of tiny glittering stars / On its cobalt blue surface / Right in the midst a silver moon / Sparkling in the night sky / Just then, a streak of bright light shot through the scene / Eyes shut, I made a wish / Let these magical moments stay alive!
Sudden, surprising charm comes in the brief A Pillow Fight:
A stash / A whoosh / Whoops! / A Feather Shower!
The imagery is palpable. That a simple struggle over pillows can lead to an expansion of the mind only reveals the range of Pavana Khan's imagination, indeed the extent to which it can liberalise itself in future literary peregrinations. Loneliness born of the absence of a mother stokes her thoughts a little more. Observe Pavana in her elemental child image:
No comfort, no touch / No reassurance, no love / The agony and the pangs / The world full of loneliness / How it feels when mom is away / Only I know!
And sensitivities are at work in Fake Consolation, for Pavana Khan is caught in a dilemma of (as she perceives it) love and less than love:
Mum says I'm her sugar candy / Mum says I'm her little birdie / Mum says I'm her cutie pie / Mum says I'm very precious / Mum says I'm her favourite / But I just saw her hug my sister!
Pavana Khan's prose is a delight to read, for it brings into focus the sharpness of the child's imagination, which imagination is of course the forging of a world it feels comfortable in. A poignant segment in the prose section concerns her recently deceased grandfather. Note the point the young writer makes in recapitulating her grandfather's life:
"My dada was a very learned person. His English was very good. He loved to read books. . . My dada was fond of reading my poems. He asked me to write a poem about 'birds'. I wrote eight lines but I am very sad that I could not finish it."
The last word on Pavana Khan's work comes from the late academic-poet-critic Khondokar Ashraf Hossain:
"Pavana sheds dew-drops in her lines --- dew-drops that sparkle with joy and wonder. A beautiful childhood celebration with beatitude of innocence, its expressions become our own in a wonderful way."

Syed Badrul Ahsan  edits Daily Star  Literature and Books Review.