For those with a feeling for South Asia but who do not live there and can only visit from time to time, it is difficult to capture at any given moment the sights, sounds and smells of the subcontinent. For them or, indeed, for someone who has never been to Kashmir The Secrets of Ishbar is `must'. This anthology transports one immediately and viscerally into the heartland of South Asia. Each poem has to be savoured and pondered, and each varies in subject-matter from the pleasant to the disturbing. Colours, images, and aromas are evoked witha poignant simplicity... Every poem in the volume has a precious quality. ---Rani Singh in Asian Affairs, London

These poems have ``flow, rhythmic freedom, nuanced sounds, feelings for time, space, and the things and events in them, a reverent disposition.'' --- Ernest McClain, renowned author and musicologist

I was moved and exhilirated by [these] poems. --- Andrei Codrescu, poet, essayist and editor of The Exquisite Corpse