Merak | Sucharita Parija

"Merak" means pleasure, passion, and desire in Turkish. I uncovered another meaning to "Merak": it is a blue star of the second magnitude seen in Ursa Major's constellation. It forms a part of the base of the Big Dipper. In Serbian, "Merak" means a feeling of bliss and a sense of oneness with the universe. The combination of a guiding star and bliss had hovered around my mind for a few minutes. It was the perfect title for my second book. The book has poems based on joy, solitude, the blessing of God, forgiveness, etc. The lyrics have given me pleasure to pen them down. There was not a single dull moment in between the words. It was hectic and exhausting to finish 21 poems in 21 days. Yet, I enjoyed every minute of writing them. I hope the readers will enjoy them similarly.