“I use to be a man fine and witty
No cares in the world full of terimity
Untill the heavens fell off my dad was murdered
And i was stranded with his property”

Anuj Tikku is a famous name. Sometimes ago, he was very much into Bollywood. However, after certain incidents, he turned himself toward different paths and began exploring his inner self in his writings. In his collection, I Am in Love Now I Can’t Get It Up, a collection of prose and poems in Hindi and English, he has written very openly about his life and his realities. The lines that I have quoted above come from his poem Property O My Property. He writes about his loneliness, his compulsions and his regret.

Similarly, in other poems and in a short prose piece, Apology, he writes what he feels – without taking a single word back. He explores his life in regression or maybe, at times, in imagination. The poems might not be the artefacts of perfection in terms of poetry, however, the content that he brings home is amazingly realistic and also relatable.

“She even carries rubbers in her bag
To please you is her job
But you of your morality she will rob
Beware of the whore the dirty little whore”

He writes the lines in his poem The Dirty Whore. Likewise, many more of his poems deal with the sexual side of getting one’s mark in the Bollywood – something that people know but seldom talk such brazenly as Anuj Tikku has conveyed in his words.

He has also written about the simple joys in life. He has written about the abstract ideas that often decorate or deteriorate our lives. He has written about the things we see – like Dhoni Ka Balla Machaye Halla and an unorthodox but realistic poem:

“ladkiyon ko dekh kar unpar mar mithey hein
apni bhookh ka izhaar apney prem se pehle kartein hein
seerath se pehele suraat par gir padhtein hein
jab wo rokhti hein tabh bhi nahi rukhtein hein
unkaa peecha parchayeein ban kar kartein hein
salla!terey jesey log hei rapist bantein hein”

Well, to be honest, reading this collection with over 130 pages and many literary pieces was a good experience – a refreshing one and a different one. That’s because Anuj Tikku has been irregular, unplanned and direct. He did not plan his collection with the poems of one kind together. It’s just like taking a road trip that you are not familiar with. You keep seeing things as you move and that’s it.

Many poems in the collection are explicit with the words one might not like reading in a mainstream book. However, how long? If those words are well a part of our conversations these days, the poems are justified! I am sure the readers of a young age will enjoy reading this coming to age fictional collection with a dose of realism and sarcasm as well as emotions. You can get the copy of this collection from Amazon India:

buy Anuj Tikku’s book – click to buy from Amazon

review by Anil for Active Readers