Could it get any verse Mumbai Mirror, 17th June 2005          ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Could it get any verse Artist Sanjeev Khandekar's 60-page single verse poem rips materialism KUBDA, THE hunchback doesn't want to be like everyone else, he wants fame and fortune, but his physical disability comes in the WAY   GEORGINA MADDOX My father died And I distributed sweets to the entire village' Kubda began to tell his story Before anyone could ask why, he said, Saala, he was a Kubda!' Then he drew his chest in And posed, like Mr India.   This is an excerpt from artist writer I Sanjeev Khandekar's book of JL Marathi poetry, called All that I wanna do. The entire book entails a sin­gle verse that takes you through the life of a hunchback who aspires to become a supermodel by following the path of Buddha. Interestingly, the single verse runs on for 60 pages. On the surface it is packed with humour and wit, but be­neath the layers, it is a serious socio-po­litical comment on the aspirations and the pressures of society. "Kubda, the hunchback doesn't want to be like everyone else, he wants fame and fortune, but his physical dis­ability comes in the way of that," says Khandekar. So the narrative verse follows his tra­vails wherein he discovers that even Buddha's path has been commercialised by his followers. "Ultimately he learns that the market governs everything." Set in contemporary times, the poem freely incorporates the computer, mo­bile phones and other modern acces­sories. There are also a few lines from the American Rock group the Sex Pis­tols, thrown in for good measure. Unlike his paintings that are com­prehensible to the layman, Khandekar's poetry is to be translated into English to reach a larger audience. "Abhay Sarde-sai (editor of Art India) is working on a translation but some of the poetry has been translated by Sachin Ketkar," he explains. Artist Chintan Upadhyay's digital artwork, from his New-breed Hybrid series featured on the cover of Khandekar's last publication of poems titled Search Engine. Yet again, both Chintan and wife Hema Upadhyay have contributed some of their stills for the book. "It's a selection of works based on what we felt and we illustrated according to the mood of the poem," says Upadhyay. All that I wanna do is available at Crossword for Rs 75. Mumbai Mirror, 17th June 2005 Top