I am in Love Now I Can’t Get it Up by Anuj Tikku – review

Anuj Tikku, a Bollywood fame whose life has been in the buzz for a long time, has been writing for years now. He writes poems, erotic fiction as well as short prose pieces. A famous blogger, he has come up with a collection of poems and a few short prose pieces in his book titled ‘I am in Love Now I can’t get it up’.

When I began reading this book (an e-book) it came to me as something hurried and weird in the beginning. It begins and it just begins… erotic poem begins the journey of Anuj Tikku’s poetic world by describing the lips of some woman and then making her an angel in whose lips the poet wants to drown himself. However, the next poem breeds hope and optimism – away from erotica – the distant ship that the poet sees. And the next one sums it up wonderfully:

“When all is lost there is still hope
Hope that things lost can be taken

…..
Hope that that change will bring
Solitude, maturity and many songs for me to sing”

So, the poems are quite impressive at the beginning in terms of thoughts and content. However, as a reader, when I went deeper, the poems changed their tune and nature – and it keeps changing throughout the collection. Anuj has written about many things – many things he could have thought and many things he could have imagined. He wishes to have a wife and he remembers his ‘English Maim’ and so on. There are also a few prose pieces that will attract readership. He writes about his father who was murdered for the property. He writes about a clown. He writes about the bitter and harsh realities of the casting couch.

Some poems are rather long and they talk about the various perspective of Anuj’s life and experiences. However, mostly, the longer ones are about love and its phases. Anupriya ka Piya is a poem in Hindi that describes Anuj’s confusion and want for Anupriya. The poem is erotic in tone at times. Many poems are erotic and adult in nature but frank and candid in content. So, the readers should be aware of what they might read when they begin reading this book.

Critically, the order of Anuj’s poems and content is not an issue and neither should it be. However, the tact and the way he has composed his poems should be an example of modern writers who only focus on delivering their messages to the readers rather than worrying about the courier services – this or that! Anuj Tikku’s collection, I am in Love Now I Can’t Get it Up, is a collection for the modern readers as well as for the traditional readers of poetry. It has thoughts in balance but presented in a loose manner. That may attract some readers and that may distract others… however, it will certainly be eventful!

You can buy a copy of Anuj’s poetry collection from Amazon:

buy the book – click here to buy from Amazon India

review by Rohit for Literature News