Monthly Features
Andal: The Autobiography of a Goddess, translated and edited by Priya Sarukkai-Chabria and Ravi Shankar, Zubaan Books, 2015. pp. 190. $21.
reviewed by Pramila Venkateswaran Andal: The Autobiography of a Goddess, translated and edited by Priya Sarukkai-Chabria and Ravi Shankar, Zubaan Books, 2015. pp. 190. $21. Andal is a household name in Tamil Nadu. Her songs sung in homes, temples, auditoriums, recital and dance halls, enacted in dance and drama, and rendered by many a musician at weddings and festivals, have delighted people over the centuries. During festival times, it is common to find little girls in Andal costume, with the hairstyle typical to her, called Andal kondai—hair gathered into a bun on the side of the head. Her Tiruppavai and Manikkavasagar’s Tiruvumpavai blare out from loud speakers on many a street in Tami Nadu—from city centers to remote villages. |
Collected Poems by Lorna Goodison, Carcanet, 2017 Paperback, ISBN 978 1 784104 66 5
reviewed by Carmen Bugan Lorna Goodison’s direct poem “A brief history of a Jamaican family” represents the theme of her country’s painful past that marks her poetic oeuvre. It’s a past that includes colonization, slavery, mass economic migration, and natural disasters, leaving her people to search for a better life. The wealth of those who took advantage of the poor, pushing them onto foreign shores, was built with “Widow’s mites and orphan’s heritage” (p.46). The poet uses alliteration (“fat”, ”foreign”, “family”, “floats”) and precise images to bring home the sense of bitterness that comes with the inevitable renunciation of one’s dignity in order to survive: |
Sasha Parmasad, No Poem, Yuganta Press, 2017
reviewed by Neel Bhattacharya Saxena Once in a while, one comes across a volume of poems where every word seems alive. A young poet Sasha Parmasad’s first publication, aptly titled No Poem, is one such book where we hear a primordial sound clothed in experiences that are at once individual and collective. The very first haiku like poem invites us to “Empty the imagination” and bids us “Now write.” In a world where machinations of the mind and language games of every kind abound, including certain kind of poetry, No Poem inaugurates what could be called heart poetry. Yet there is no sentimentality in this young woman’s voice, but a resounding strength emerging out of life’s pulsating beauty. |
