Keralite Writing in English – II

Continuing on the trail of Keralite and Indian writing in English that is hard hitting in that it speaks to me I would like to open today with a poem by Panjami Anand. I quote her poem with the certainty that it will also speak to you with the same force, the force of the sledgehammer blow that I  have come to look for as a trademark, to make it stand out in the sea of voices found in today’s world of writing.

“Imagine a girl at the threshold of puberty,
She has an enormous bosom
Still an innocent child
Jumping, prancing, running…
But what the world sees is a young woman
Inviting undesirable consideration.
She begins to shed bliss layer by layer
When some aunt hits her hard
With condescending words of disdain.
Shame on you girl!
Hide your shame! Immodest girl parading
For one and all to see!

She would set her first foot into womanhood
In shame, apologizing for something
She happens to have a little more of.
And one who has nothing to cover
Yet conceals, is most modest!”

(c) Panjami Anand.

In my first article, I had spoken of the works of literature of today having to undergo tremendous scrutiny as it has to fulfill many expectations and demands, of thought and intellect, of feeling and emotion, of criticism and theory, of disciplines, of norms as in this case of poetry, of language and finally, of supply and demand. I quoted poets who break norms, are subversive and not subservient, poets like Arun Kolatkar who both criticize and praise India, Namdeo Dhasal who is critical, Reena Prasad  and Bina Biswas who are sensuous in their use of imagery, Santosh Bakaya who is politically conscious and Ravi Shanker, Atindriyo  Chakraborty and myself who are politically subversive or Rukhaya who is literarily or literally subversive in the Indian context and in this connection I have to speak of Panjami’s poem as being part of a tradition, similar, one that is best represented by Kamala Suraiyya in her early writings, which is the tradition of indigenous feminism. Her poem is subversive but to understand its exact shade of subversion one has to read something in Happy Bodies by Becky C K on breasts.

Becky writes…. ”

breasts – all shapes, sizes, races, sagging, perky, asymmetrical, what breasts  actually look like. I encourage you to just take a minute to look at breasts – not being motorboated, not being shoved up in a push-up bra, not waiting for a man. They are part of our bodies, even when they are not being stared at, or during sex. They are for our sexual pleasure too. They breastfeed, bounce when we run, sag when we age, they can get cancer and mastectomies. Our breasts are not an object for the male gaze, they are part of our bodies, and part of ourselves.

I want to write more later about the objectification of the female body as it relates to a culture of sexual violence, and how that can be changed. But for now, let’s just take a second to appreciate our breasts.”

Why does Panjami’s poem strike a chord in us? It is because we are startled to see a parallel in her poem to what Western feminists like Becky are aware of, which is best termed in critical parlance as demystification. Her poem demystifies not only a body part but many other things patriarchy wants to keep mystified, in a seemingly simple manner, but is extremely sophisticated in its layers of significance and complicatedness/complexity, actually.

Meena Alexander

Why I respect the best Keralite writing and the world surrounding it is because it often has this kind of a ‘subversive’ edge, as can be seen also in the best work of many other writers both unknown and famous, including O.V. Vijayan of Legends of Khasak and cartoon and translation fame, not to mention his other works, Vijay Nambisan the poet, Gopikrishnan Kottoor the poet, Vinay Bhaskar the poet ( P Bhaskaran’s son), Anees Salim the novelist and writer, Manu Joseph the novelist and writer, TJS George – Jeet Thayil’s father – and Venu Menon (journalists), Shreekumar Varma  ( a powerful dramatist), Meena Alexander  (poetess), Hridayakumari and Sugathakumari , Santosh Alex the translator, Junaith Rahman, Jose Varghese, Shanu Athiparambath, Anna Sujatha Modayil, Chandramohan Satyanathan, K B Basant (poet), two Vijay Nairs I know, Nisha Suresh, Smitha Bharathan, Maya Dev, Mridula Koshy the novelist and writer, C. P. Surendran, Suzie Tharu for her anthologizing capability and  both younger people and not so young writers of now like Michael A.V., Aparna Nair, Sanju Clement, Geeta Munnurcode, Lohian Lohithakshan , Nada Jithin, Akhila Rajesh, Meena Nair, S. Murali (poet and painter) etc. I also want to mention briefly the work of Sudarshan Kcherry of Authorspress as a publisher and Gopakumar Radhakrishnan as a literateur, occupying P. Lal like spaces in a different way, in bringing many excellent writers to national attention, as an insert or inset  here, to open the eyes of readers to another aspect of Keralite writing in English which has not yet been properly studied, which is its power as a lobby for canon making, trend-setting and creating tastes and as an industry that dictates what libraries and universities put in their syllabuses, as well as what books get taken into consideration for awards by literary bodies like Sahitya Akademis or sold as bestsellers, or appear on online outlets and in bookstores etc…

TO RETURN TO INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH TODAY AND MAPPING IT.

O.V. Vijayan

Writers who can shake up the status quo like the ones I quote are not found only in Kerala.  I have seen them in other states and other countries too and ultimately they are the writers who matter. To name a few more names, they include writers like Sujata Parashar in her poetry, Meenu Mehrotra  in hers, Philip Nikolayev who to me is very Indian, Sudeep Sen the anthologist,  and Sarojini Sahoo in her novels like  The Dark Abode, not to mention poets like Gorakhnath Gangane from Maharashtra, Sangeeta Talwar Suneja,  Zainab Hossain, Rajendra Padhi, Rinzu Susan Rajan who like me is a Pushcart nominee, Shalini Samuel, Tapeshwar Prasad and Elvira Lobo.  There are writers like the prolific, famous and erudite Sunil Sharma, then Kalpana Shah, Neetu Wali, Dolly Singh, Sunila Kamal, Hardaman Singh, Subrata Ray, Himali Narang, Rajesh Joshi, the record-breaking Neelam Saxena Chandra, Bhaskaranand Jha, Nalini Srivastava, Arghya Dey, Anilkumar Panda, Nandini Mitra, Rhiti Bose of Incredible Women fame,  Archna Pant (fiction writer), Nandita Bose (fiction writer), Sumit Sehgal, Reema Das, Shahbaz Khan, Susma Sharma Gurumayum, Meetu Nadir, Vinay Kuchhal, Rit Chattopadhyay, Rajbabu Gandham, Kuchibhotla Sarada, Ayush Singhania, Somava Das, Binod Bastola Joshi,  Swati C. Shivki, Rishabh Tulsyan, Azam Siddiqui, Pranav Sinha,  Bernard Dsaa, Suresh Dogra, Jaydeep Sharangi and Gopal Lahiri, not to mention Kiriti Sengupta and Santanu Halder, who have achieved or are achieving or will achieve a modicum of fame and respectability.   In other countries I have come across writers like Michele Baron and Pramila Khadun who are both significant and emerging voices. Pramila’s mix of Gibran-like and Tagor- like utterances reflects her influences, but having her own distinctiveness is especially enchanting.

Jayanta Mahapatra

I would like to return to Jayanta Mahapatra briefly in a famous poem of his to point out how at its best Indian literature can deconstruct mainstream discourses knowingly or unknowingly, as this poem of his I am now going to quote simultaneously speaks for and against colonialism and conversion, and for and against the past and present and two religions, looking to the past and the future by neither dismissing their claims nor standing for modernism by validating them. The poem is called Grandfather.

About the Author

Dr Ampat Varghese Koshy ( 28 Posts)

Dr. Koshy A.V. is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the English Department of Jazan University, Saudi Arabia. He has many books, degrees, diplomas, certificates, prizes, and awards to his credit and also, besides teaching, is an editor, anthology maker, poet, critic and writer of fiction. He runs an autism NPO with his wife, Anna Gabriel.
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