Abhinav Motiwal

Sonder Abhinav Motiwal

The word 'Sonder' has its origins in neologism and was coined in 2012 by John Koenig. What does it mean? It is inspired by German "sonder"- special and French "sonder"-to probe. It has a very special meaning of the profound realisation that everyone, including strangers passed in the street have a life as complex as one's own. They are constantly living in it despite their lack of awareness of it. By extension, a collective existence with individual levels of awareness and a general ignorance. That brings us to the primary motif of the poems, a fly on the wall commentary on daily life and observations. At times satirical, albeit dwelling on the world around us. The works use colour, emotions or behaviour to reflect the tendencies and idiosyncrasies of people whom we see in our daily lives. The poems explore contrarian ideas or the flipside of reasoning or simply try making the mundane less so, weaving words in the process. While some poems tell a story, others are much removed and rely on the underlying tone to let the reader fire his imagination. In doing so, it creates a shared experience of putting connotation into the words but letting the reader discover their personal meanings within each poem- a mutual 'sonder' creation.