From Code to Couplets: Pune Technologist Mandar Palshikar Releases Debut Poetry Collection “Zindagi… Siyahi aur Jazbaat”
Pune (Maharashtra) [India]: After two decades of decoding complex IT architectures for some of the world’s leading technology firms, Pune-based technologist Mandar Palshikar has unveiled a side of himself few of his colleagues may have ever known. His debut poetry collection, “Zindagi… Siyahi aur Jazbaat,” released recently, is a deeply personal anthology that bridges the precise, logical world of a software architect with the boundless, emotional landscape of a poet.
The book, whose title roughly translates to “Life, Ink and Emotions,” is a soulful blend of simple Hindi and the rich, layered cadence of Urdu. The linguistic combination mirrors the author’s own dual identity as a strategist by day and a shayar by night.
“For twenty years, my life was built on logic, binary, and the pursuit of efficiency,” Mandar said while reflecting on his journey. “But beneath all of that, there was always a poet waiting to be heard.”
A Journey That Began in College Corridors
Mandar’s tryst with poetry began during his college years between 2000 and 2007, when he found himself captivated by the ghazals of Mirza Ghalib and the soulful verses of Mir Taqi Mir. What began as a student’s curiosity slowly grew into a lifelong devotion to Hindi and Urdu literature. He picked up the nuances of shayari not from textbooks but from the echoes of Sufi melodies and the timeless verses of the masters.
He began writing his own poems somewhere between 2005 and 2007. But, as he candidly puts it, “life and career happened.” The demands of building a career in the fast-paced IT industry pushed his creative pursuits to the background for over a decade.
It was the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 that finally brought him back to his first love. Confined indoors, like millions around the world, Mandar turned inward, and the verses began to flow once again. What started as a quiet personal dream of publishing his poems eventually took nearly six years to come to fruition.
A Tribute to Love, Family, and Friends
At its heart, “Zindagi… Siyahi aur Jazbaat” is a tribute. The book is dedicated to Mandar’s wife, Preeti, who has been his companion since those very college corridors in 2005. “If my life were a game, she would be the light that guides me through every level,” he writes in the book. “If it were code, she would be the logic that makes it all work.”
The couple recently welcomed their first child, a son who is now a year old. Watching his son take his first steps, Mandar says, has given these poems a renewed sense of meaning. Themes of fatherhood, nostalgia, and quiet domestic joy run through the collection alongside more familiar poetic territory such as love, longing, hope, and the occasional “system crash” of the soul.
In doing so, the book becomes something of a quiet monument to innate human feelings, weaving together voices that rarely find a place in mainstream literature.
A Distinct Voice
Stylistically, the anthology moves fluidly between refined, almost classical language and earthy, conversational simplicity. Some poems unfold with the structured elegance of traditional Urdu shayari, while others speak in the plain-spoken rhythm of everyday Hindi. This variation, readers say, makes the collection both reflective and relatable, a book that can be read in one sitting or savoured one poem at a time.
Mandar’s work has already received international recognition. He was honoured with the 21st Century Emily Dickinson Award, a notable acknowledgement for a debut poet writing primarily in Hindi and Urdu.
The Gamer-Poet
When he is not deciphering enterprise systems or drafting verses, Mandar is most likely at a gaming console. A self-described “gamer for life” with a deep love for retro gaming and vintage consoles, he says he views life through the lens of a player, always ready for the next level, always grateful for the journey so far.
It is perhaps this unique combination of technologist, poet, gamer, husband, and father that gives “Zindagi… Siyahi aur Jazbaat” its distinct voice. As mandar himself puts it, the book is “a journey through nights of velvet, deserts of longing, and the mountains of hope.”
For readers willing to pause, the collection offers exactly that, a chance to find their own story in the quiet space where code meets craft.
- TITLE: Zindagi… Siyahi aur Jazbaat
- BOOK: https://www.amazon.in/dp/9375430138
- INSTAGRAM: @mandarpalshikar
- SPOTIFY ALBUM: Zindagi
