Snehal Vadher’s debut collection carries the timbre of mountain winds. Although the poems are arranged alphabetically by title, they can be read in any order, which is often the best way to experience poetry. Vigorous yet tender, expansive yet precise, they inhabit a world where practised stasis encounters the inevitable dynamics of life. While rooted in the immediate landscape, they find distinct ways to soar and surprise.

Vadher taught English and creative writing in Mumbai for over a decade before the pull of the Himalayas became irresistible. He moved to Dharamshala, where he guides bicycle tours and treks. A journey with him, whether virtual or real, promises both adventure and epiphany.

“Snehal Vadher’s Windows to a Mountain (Copper Coin, 2024) is his first collection. He writes in long (sometimes short) meditative lines, paying close attention to the world around him as well as to his response to it. Walking up a familiar route in Dharamsala where he lives, he approaches his destination. It’s a stream. ‘And suddenly,’ he writes, ‘I’ve lost what I no longer need. / To be washed clean of a name / and then to go looking for it is fear.’ Though these moments of vision can happen any time, they happen particularly on a ‘Sunday evening / [when] everything is preordained.’ Sometimes the very ordinariness and predictability of the experience is the vision.”
—Arvind Krishna Mehrotra