Chequerboard and Other Poems

I've known you now for so very long,I look at you and burst into song.From the moment we digest these opening lines of Ashok Sawhny's paean of praise to London town, we capture the exuberant mood of an author determined to find beauty - and humour - in his surroundings.He may be versifying on the golf swing, the Enstrom 480B helicopter or Indian elections - 'Long live the electorate - so long as they vote for me and my mate!' - or reflecting on the sands of time against a glowing sunset. Whatever the setting, a genial cynicism and wry acceptance of the workings of fate colour and inform these hundred-plus poems.True, there is an aknowledged darker side to life, contrasting with the brightness of our days of love and laughter; hence the Chequerboard. But as the world welcomes a new US President in the White House, the author looks to mankind to respond positively. And that is what his readers are bound to do.AUTHOR BIO:Ashok Sawhny was born in Lahore, Punjab, in 1937. The family moved to New Delhi, India after Partition in 1947. Schooled at Modern School and graduating in Economics from St Stephen's College, Delhi, he worked with Indian Industry until 1977 and then started his own International Trading Company, Monarch International, of which he is president. His love for art, literature and the finer side of life finds expression in his previous books The Sands of Time, As Time Goes By and Fruit Salad. He also writes in Urdu language.