
Arrivals & Departures is Reena Kapoor’s debut poetry collection. This anthology takes readers on a journey through a multitude of places, time periods, and emotions, including the nostalgia of one’s homeland, the suffering and resilience of women who experienced India and Pakistan’s 1947 Partition, parenthood, and life’s other simple pleasure. Kapoor draws readers into new worlds with her words and allows them to find themselves within.
The collection is divided into eight sections, each around a theme e.g., Departures, Arrivals, Blink of an eye and Snatching time. Each is accompanied by one of Kapoor’s original photographs, exhibiting the intersectionality among multiple forms of art. Along with the intersectionality of art, Kapoor’s poems display the intersectionality of emotions. Sadness does not exist without happiness. Without suffering, there is no strength. Longing is accompanied by abundance, and grieving by peace. Without departures, there are no arrivals.
Finally, Arrivals & Departures amply illustrates that we are the legacies of the men and women who lived before us such as those from the 1947 Partition of India, and the Nirbhaya rape case from 2012. Their torment and their courage live within us. We bury this history at our own peril.
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