Waves and Whirlpools

“Aashna's poetry vibrates with the metaphorical use of language that never appears to be laboured. A reading of the poems amply justifies his confidence, in that tradition runs like life blood in his poetry. Aashna is a poet and knows how to swallow fire and turn it into gold through artistic alchemy. All his poems including the ones with the social import, lead on the enigmatic and mysterious. And when poetry establishes a contact with the mysterious, it is on threshold of greatness, of classic grandeur. Such poetry as this tends to develop towards symbolism. I have a feeling that the young poet promises to develop in this direction. Already there are certain images which repeat themselves and go on gathering new layers of signification around them” ----–Professor G.R Malik “Aashna's poems are the songs of silence. But we need to read him aloud: his silent stresses pay way to the clarity of his word…English poetry in India is a poise of mystic consciousness of the spiritual unity and the firmament of the contemporary social concerns. Aashna too evokes us with the fusing themes of his vision of self and nature.” -----– Dr. Satish Vimal