Akhil Katyal, How Many Countries does the Indus Cross, (The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, 2019), Price: Rs. 350, Pages 67. Reviewed by: – Pranshu Joshi Doctoral Research Scholar in English Literature School of Liberal Studies Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University Gujarat, India A Political Residue The political residue embedded in the consciousness of the people who are divided by the political lines nonetheless share an undivided common history find a voice in the poems of Akhil Katyal. The poems, in Akhil Katyal’s How Many Countries does the Indus Cross, are infused with the politics of bygone days of the Indian subcontinent which unfailingly defines our present-day politics and dictates the lives of the people. With an engaging title, the poet critiques absurdly painted borders of the surfaced nations on the map of the Indian subcontinent in the twentieth century. Every country that Indus passes through has been witnessing an ongoing unrest. These countries have been engulfed in territorial conflicts, regions in the course of Indus have witnessed suffering and fought a politicised dispute over the water of Indus. In spite of all, as poet shows, irrevocable Indus, ironical as it seems, overruns the divided lands unifying the people in their experiences. Katyal’s poems, interspersed with a thematic plethora, engage the readers with the stylistic appeal. As we begin, we find that the poet has already set the tone for the rest of the poems by invoking two late poets, Agha Shahid Ali and Fahmida Riaz, at the beginning of the book. What agonised Agha Shahid Ali had once written: “One must wear jewelled ice in dry plains to will the distant mountains to glass. The city from where no news can come is now so visible in its curfewed nights that the worst is precise….”