Love in the times of Pokemon by Anurag

Anurag is a self-published author and have recently published his debut book of poetry called: Love in the time of Pokemon: Poems about love, loneliness, and other funny things. 

 

He approached storywala and here is an excerpt from his reading journey, library, and his favourite genres and books. Honestly, I have not read his book, still introducing a fellow reader turned author. Read at your own will! 

Which was the first book you remember reading?  

The first book I read was Sigmund Freud’s  Interpretation of the dream during my engineering college days. I was fascinated and puzzled by dreams and wanted to understand more about the symbolism of (un)consciousness. I finished the book in 5 days and was quite amazed by its content. Though, I now like Carl Jung's theories more than Freud's.

Which is your favorite poet and why?

Charles Bukowski is the one. He deals with contemporary life. About streets, about loneliness, about ache, about boredom; which all comes from his personal experience of the harshness of life. But the tone of his books was never melodramatic and rather follow a certain rhythm of storytelling structure. In spite all such themes, his outlook towards life was never hopeless and he had the great ability to incorporate humor in poems which made his poem appear as a celebration of life in all its absurdities. 

Which is your favorite book and how did you get to read it?

There are many favorites according to the emotional state I have been into. Recently I’ve read short stories by relatively unknown Hindi write Rajkamal Choudhary which I found inside a very old library of Rajasthan. I was hooked on this book for many days because of Rajkamal’s masterful style of writing about the dark side of urban realities.The genius of Rajakamal has always been underappreciated in the Hindi literature history because of his indifference to become a part of the coterie of other dull elite Hindi writers and influencers. 

Tell us about your personal library at home? 

Most of the Paperbacks are from the time when I was in college because now I prefer ebooks. It consists of lot many of existentialist authors who were my favorite during teenage years: Albert Camus, Sartre, Herman Hesse, Nietzsche. Italian novelist Alberto Moravia's books are there as well whom I find intriguing. Also books by John Fante, Dostoevsky, Julio Cortázar, Manohar Shyam Joshi, among various others. 

How did you arrive at the idea of writing the book?

I am writing short stories and poems since 6-7 years.  After writing anything I used to mail my poems to 3-4 friends of mine. That was the tiny audience I had for my poems. Recently when I had sufficient numbers of poems and was confident enough about the merits of them I decided to convert into the book and publish. 

Finally, you say you are a poet, now create an original short poem for the readers! 

This one a small excerpt from a long poem titled' Love and Mosquitoes' from my book love in the time of Pokemon. 

Love and Mosquitoes 

whenever you are with me I feel like

I am high on coffee

or on some substance

which even kings crave for.

Is it the room purifier

or the smell of herbal mosquito repellent

applied on my leg

or the smell of perfume

applied on your body;


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