Daruwalla glorifies love and celebration of sex as a typical Indian. Crossing of Rivers is a serious and thoughtful poetic statement on the theme of love. It is a well knit poem with a calculated beginning and a circular end. During one of his crossings the youth falls in love with the fisher girl, who later becomes the mountain girl. Another crossing comes in the autumn of their lives—that of separation from each other for good. In between these two crossings are moments of experiencing the ecstasy of love:
“Why, installing a mistressis like installing a deity in the house!”
As she has been a vagrant child of nature, she does not want confine herself to social and domestic responsibilities:
“She didn't want children
for a concubine's children cannot offer
to their ancestors
limps of boiled rice.”
for a concubine's children cannot offer
to their ancestors
limps of boiled rice.”
She, thus, embodies both love and detachment, love that is devoid of sexuality. Daruwalla has given a new dimension to the theme of love. Love can flower within without any physical contact.
- Must also read: Satire and Irony in the Poems of Keki N. Daruwalla
Death of a Bird is a poignant love poem which expresses intense and self effacing love between two monals who "mated, clawed and screamed" under an overhang of crags:
“the female brown and nondes-crift
the male was king, a fire-dream!”
the male was king, a fire-dream!”
The hunter mercilessly killed the King (male) monal. The female monal "rose, in terror crying." The hunter and his beloved intensely desired to enjoy love in moonlit night but their dream of "quiescence and love" was upset by the moaning voice of the female monal whom the cruel hunter also killed in "an ash grey dawn". His wife was terrified at the sight of the female monal" near dead/its eyes flared terror like hits of driffing meat.
- Must also read: Themes in the Poetry of K.N. Daruwalla
People who separate lovers can never enjoy the ecstasy of love. They have to suffer the nemesis of their guilt.
Daruwalla lashes at the growing sexuality in India. The naked display of sex and sexuality after the European style is immoral. To them sex is merely a source of recreation and of exchanging sensations, heavings and sighings. Even the old leaders suffer from sexual perversion which grips modern society:
“He is an old leader after allWho has gone thrice to jail—twice for home-ruleand once for sodomy.” [Food and Words, Words and Food]
A man of fifty commits suicide in one of his poems because he failed to seduce a school girl. The poet has a dig at the Indian youths who mostly possess unclean and sensual thoughts, and who always remember that "between the novel and the knees is the taboo region." Rotarian Renu takes pleasure in displaying her fleshy parts which excite male sexuality.
“She shows to advantage her razor-shaped legsChipped portions of KegsHer torso—the oft quoted "double fried egg"
The Unrest of Desires, one of Daruwalla's finest love poems, depicts the pleasures of conjugal love. Sex is important in connubial life. It leads to intimacy, warmth of relationship and ultimately to love. The wife silently calls her husband to have sex with her when children sleep. The poet gives a vivid and lively description of their love making:
“Suddenly/she is in my arms/swarmingHer nipples and the grass outside/harden together,tense with coming thunderKissing her on the neckI nibble the words as they slur across her skin…………………………………………………..As if in reply/she presses me harder to herselfI enter her/the way a boat starved offresh water/enters a harbour.”
Changing seasons arouse different kinds of feelings in the husband's mind. In rainy season he is in a jovial and buoyant mood. In July morning he sees queer newness and freshness on his wife's face. "She is a coriander leaf/newly plucked/rain washed." He is possessed of voluptuous and sensual desires:
“And I reach over for her/soft and willing andnaked/and slowly rhythmic.”
Love among Pines recollects love-experiences of the poet, who while enjoying a walk with his wife, catches sight of some sensuous scenes which make him whisper:
“destiny lies/in parting of hair/in the parting ofgrasses/in the parting of thighs.”
In this poem the poet realistically depicts a consumable picture of the process of copulation, moods and feelings which grip a couple during the moments of sexual realization.
From the Snows in Ranikhet addresses his newlywed friend and advises him how to make maximum use of physical pleasure. It is full of sensual and voluptuous thoughts. Advising his friend how to celebrate the first night of union he says:
“Just dig through too white feet of silencetill you hit the ground.”
How physical union creates new life on earth is described in the following lines:
“But the goddess of the seasonsstill chews her comic endHer mastication brings forth green leaf and golden budFish will erupt from larval bedsand go downstream with the flood.”
