Dr Alok Mishra Quotes

“Literary criticism, to be precise, and when pursued beyond the boundaries of academic jargon, directly serves the collective consciousness of humanity! It should be carried out to encourage mass participation in the perusal of serious literature or to find seriousness even in the most playfully written literary works. Extending the hypothesis, every author has a thread or two hidden to conceal the life lessons that are layered beneath the entertaining episodes in the storyline. Readers, at large, given their busy and callous lifestyle bereaved of the aesthetic values, may conveniently ignore toiling to reveal those layers; it is, therefore, incumbent upon literary critics to make it happen!”
― Alok Mishra

“Poetry is the rhythm composed in solitude and distributed to the masses.”
― Alok Mishra

“Academic criticism often focuses on pleasing the examiners for various purposes. It lacks the aesthetic design, the nobility of purpose and the freedom to touch emotional and humane aspects of the literary work that appeal to the senses rather than the intellectual faculty.”
― Alok Mishra

“Only if I knew
that knowing it would bring
a burden I could seldom carry
and ferry among those I know,
only to be rejected.
Who knows what I know?
Do I know if they know?
Who knows all those who know?”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“When put to the best use, poetry has not only the power to stir one’s emotions and thoughts, but also the soul itself!”
― Alok Mishra

“In the beginning, poets make their best efforts to fit words into their rhyme and lyric. However, as time passes and the ink mystifies, poets tend to let their thoughts conjure a rhyme in tune with the extraordinary struggles of ordinary life.”
― Alok Mishra

“A new beginning is an illusion.
We continue.”
― Alok Mishra

“Philosophy eulogises death, perturbs lives.”
― Alok Mishra

“Every profound literary work is a bridge between what we are and what we may become, not just as individuals, but as a collective conscience.”
― Alok Mishra

“Meaningful literary criticism is like penance to please Bhagwan Shiva and ask for wisdom for the world instead of material things for oneself when God appears! Such is the spiritual gravity of deep, reflective engagement with literature.”
― Alok Mishra

“The true critic and the true reader are inextricably bound. They both recognise that literature is not just about plot or character or rhythm or rhyme. It is about meaning. It is about impact. It is about transformation.”
― Alok Mishra

“It is not the quantity of reading but the quality of engagement that defines literary worth.”
― Alok Mishra

“The modern reader must ask: what do I want from literature? Do I merely seek comfort, entertainment, prestige, or am I in search of something nobler—wisdom, empathy, truth? The way we read ultimately shapes who we are. And who we are determines what kind of world we wish to build.”
― Alok Mishra

“Sadly, but certainly, a promising genre of literature in poetry that began with pomp and a loud thud, a banger and an emphatic entry in the public domain with so many expectations, has been circumambulating the corridors of university classrooms and the decision war-rooms of the government-funded and apparently biased award bodies.”
― Alok Mishra

“From the actual public discourse of life, poetry, unfortunately, has vanished! Whatever residue is left has the silver touch of verse and aesthetic in the subconscious of the aged population from the bygone era!”
― Alok Mishra

“Poetry, today, is struggling for its space. Poets are writing poems. Readers are not reading poems. Other poets are reading other poets’ poems. They seldom like or appreciate what others write. Poetry, therefore, has turned itself into an unresolving cycle of paradox!”
― Alok Mishra

“Poetry, if it has too many layers, should at least lead readers to the openings of the caves the poet built with words and then let them explore on their own! If it does not happen, the travellers might return even without knocking at all!”
― Alok Mishra

“When poetry becomes synonymous with examination stress, it is unsurprising that readers abandon it once formal education ends.”
― Alok Mishra

“Poetry is frequently introduced as an object of dissection rather than an experience of encounter. Students are trained to hunt for metaphors, symbols, and devices before they are allowed to feel the poem. This premature intellectualisation breeds anxiety rather than appreciation.”
― Alok Mishra

“Criticism that thrives on exaggeration or selective reading ultimately undermines its own credibility.”
― Alok Mishra

“When we two parted,
there was no agony in either
of the two
who
lived all our lives together,
so close and near,
and so, so dear
one could hardly guess
one from the other.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“Literary criticism must venture into the dark streets of the unconscious and the mildly lit subconscious of the characters and the authors. However, it must not ignore the aesthetic and the apparent value of a literary work.”
― Alok Mishra

“Time has wasted itself
doing absolutely nothing!
I only wish it could turn back
and bring
me another opportunity
to experience and see,
fathom and breathe,
live with her and leave
the world on its own,
that night of passionate solitude.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“No heartbreak can make a poet!
Poetry doesn’t stem from a broken heart
which fell apart
merely because someone left
and left a few marks to be felt,
dealt with and smelt
with emptiness and shallowness
of the breast.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“Only if I knew
that knowing it would bring
a burden I could seldom carry
and ferry among those I know,
only to be rejected.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“And we are still here
walking in this maze of perplexing
entries and problematic exits.
No words exchanged.
Even our eyes seldom throw
some letters of compassion or contempt
on each other.
I believe you, and I do so.
I know only you may show
the final door to enter
with no exit that follows.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death

“Justice


A mother will die.
A child will be saved.
A serpent will always bite.
Beyond the sentimental values
we often inscribe on whatever we can,
the jury and the executioner, in this case,
are one and the same, and their perception of justice –
airtight!
Untouched by the melodrama.”
― Alok Mishra, Thoughts Between Life and Death