A decade of deciphering Grace’s complex works

The programme series takes an unconventional path to understanding Grace’s complicated verse. The focus is on the poet’s peculiar observations and his use of sometimes difficult-to-decipher symbolism. “His poems border on the conscious and subconscious mind. It cannot be understood as normal streams of poetry,” Mumule elaborated. The discussions try to interpret the deep-set meanings in Grace’s words. In 2005,Mulmule combined his psychiatric experience and his appreciation of Grace’s words to write a book that analysed the poems through theories proposed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung,among others. Grace wrote a simple blurb to the book but refused to speak at the launch function.

“He made use of many archaic symbols in his poems that were difficult to understand,” said Mulmule. In the course of his association with the late poet,Mulmule discovered that the mystique attached to him was over-rated.

“He had a sensitive mind. I remember him telling me that he has never seen the Ganges,that he didn’t need to. He never explained it in simple words. Some critics thought his poems to be a hotchpotch of words,that pushed people away,” said Mulmule. “I have memorised hundreds of his poems and have realised that they are not so mystical.”