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Why is Mridula Bhatkar seeing poetry in the word 'honourable'?

The sitting Justice of the Bom HC has released a collection of poems and that word is one of the titles

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Call it poetic justice, if you want. The court of Justice Mridula Bhatkar won't be harsh on you. 

A sitting Justice of the Bombay High Court, Bhatkar is now making waves in the literary circles. She has just released a collection of poems. No marks for guessing what they are on. Kavita Manatlya- Kavita Courtatlya (Poems from heart, poems from the court) sings about her long years of experience in the court room and her observations on the justice system. 

Taste the titles first. Satya, Tareekh (Adjournment), Nyay (Justice), and there's a lot more. The world of art and literature is not strange to Bhatkar. Her husband, Ramesh Bhatkar, is a Marathi actor. The collection of poems is a selection from over the hundreds she has written in her 23 years of legal career, she told dna.

“The writing is purely an expression from a poet's point of view. To some it may be a thought which occurred to me at that moment, but once the book is published, it surely is out for criticism,” she says. 

The collection reflects on the society surrounding us. Be it the poem raising several questions on caste and gender, or inter-sectionality, titled Jogwa, which pleads to Almighty that the next generation be free from caste and live only as human beings. A haiku called Aathwan (Memory) evokes nostalgia with an economy of words that leaves you stunned.

While many of the poems linger long afterwards, it is those dealing with courts that the poetess seems to coming into her own. Among the 15 poems, one which stands out is Satya (Truth), a word much bandied in
courtrooms. The verse reeks of the stiff irony of how truth is evoked in courtrooms to hide its 'nakedness.'

Tareekh (Adjournment) takes on a completely different meaning in this anthology. The poem movingly focuses on the absurd dehumanising of the legal process which often takes so long in delivering justice that it loses all meaning and purpose.

Another one 'Honourable' too laments this mechanical approach. Nyay (Justice) speaks of how there's a judge in every man but asks pertinently whether there is a man in every judge. Wondering whether law is for people, or people for the law, it poses a chicken-and-egg question.

Nirnay (Ruling) looks at the unseen emotion behind what the courts rule. It asks, “Tula maahit aahe ka?/ Nikaal zari tujha asla tari nirnay maajha asto/ Krus zari tujha asla/ tari khaanda maajha asto (Do you know? The decision may affect you, but it's always 'my' ruling/The cross may be yours to bear/ But the shoulder's always mine.)

That's one ruling no one would disagree with. 

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