Sikh hair, Women Poets and Mahasweta Devi
I read an interesting article, in Outlook, on how rural Sikh Punjabi's are cutting off their hair. It seems after 9.11, they are concerned about being seen as Muslims, also without a turban they can get past immigration lines faster. The drug and alcohol problem among rural Jats seems to be another reason for chopping off hair. It’s hard to be a Sikh with hair and hold a cigarette or a drink in your hand.
Uski Awaz: Her voice. I went to a contemporary women's poetry reading at the IIC last week. The session featured multi lingual poetry in Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi. I think India is one of the few places in the world, where four different languages can be read poetically and each one appreciated by most of the audience. Hindi poetry was read by Anamika and Savita Singh. English by Rukmini Bhaya- Nair and Sagari Chabbra, Urdu by Tarannum Riyaz and Shahla Nigar and Punjabi poetry by Paul Kaur. I found Anamika’s poetry too loud and over articulated. Paul Kaur’s poetry sounded beautiful in Punjabi, she wrote about women. Savita Singh’s Hindi poetry was melancholy and angry about the continuing degradation and oppression of women. She is a political scientist and her poetry was inflected with her politics. Rukmini Bhaya- Nair, the soft spoken English professor at Delhi University, was humorous and reinterpreted women’s space in the Upanishads in her poem Gargi’s silence. Her sexy poem feasts was greeted with a lot of applause.
Here it is.. Feasts a song for spice girls everywhere
When at nights you feel
On another’s tongue
Slanderous asafetida
Lime’s quick murderous knife
Sliding in among
Wild strawberry orgies
Arabesques of garlic
Curvaceous around
The sentinel cloves
You wonder about desire
How it can be found
Delicate as rosewater
Or frank as coriander
Rising from your lover’s
Breath, mustard fumey
What lingers after
You consume each other
Is this memory of spices
Dancing salt waltzes
And mint fritillaries
Waving to parsley fronds
Which is why the milky
Delicacy of Bangla mishti
Mystical varanasi rabri
Mysore pak melting piously
In your tolerant maws
Jalebies intricate twists
Like signatures support
Only a lesser cause
Affection, but not love
If you are truly hungry
You must melt the world
Into paprika agonies
Tympanum of turmeric
Masking rosemary swirls
And cumin confetti
Falling in the basil dusk
As you wander through
Legendary cinnamon groves
Even the jumpy machinations
Of ginger must taste to you
Sweet, if you have feasted on love.
Sagari Chhabra’s poetry dealt with social causes, her poem hunger, mocked the non- profit organizations and the government that are causing artificial food shortages. Her poem on the Iraq war was eloquent and angry.
The most beautiful and strong poetry was by the Urdu poet, Shahla Nigar. This young woman from Jamia Millia University, majoring in Urdu read her poetry like it was a ghazal, with stanzas often repeated to emphasize their importance. She wrote about being a Muslim girl in India and about the Urdu language. She is definitely a poet who is going to go places with her sensitivity, lyrical language and articulate manner.
Tarannum Riyaz, a poet from Kashmir wrote a lot of love poetry that sounded romantic and melancholy. Some of her lines were atma ki chinta nahi karo, vah sada khali rahte hai.
Also Mahasweta Devi, gave a speech at the Frankfurt book fair, about Indian freedom being still on hold, and requiring a moral transformation. Here is an excerpt.
I dream of an India to which the world backward does not and cannot ever apply. I wish to be third world no more, but first the only world. I wish for children to be educated. I wish for women to step into the light. I wish for justice for the common man. Survival for the farmer. Homes for the poor. And hope for all. I wish for debts to cease. For poverty to vanish. For hunger to become a bad word that no one utters. I wish for the environment to be protected, to be loved and restored. I wish the land to be healed, and waters to be pure again. For the tiger to survive. I wish for self reliance, for self respect, for independence from the shackles of superstition. I wish for equal medical aid for all.
Uski Awaz: Her voice. I went to a contemporary women's poetry reading at the IIC last week. The session featured multi lingual poetry in Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi. I think India is one of the few places in the world, where four different languages can be read poetically and each one appreciated by most of the audience. Hindi poetry was read by Anamika and Savita Singh. English by Rukmini Bhaya- Nair and Sagari Chabbra, Urdu by Tarannum Riyaz and Shahla Nigar and Punjabi poetry by Paul Kaur. I found Anamika’s poetry too loud and over articulated. Paul Kaur’s poetry sounded beautiful in Punjabi, she wrote about women. Savita Singh’s Hindi poetry was melancholy and angry about the continuing degradation and oppression of women. She is a political scientist and her poetry was inflected with her politics. Rukmini Bhaya- Nair, the soft spoken English professor at Delhi University, was humorous and reinterpreted women’s space in the Upanishads in her poem Gargi’s silence. Her sexy poem feasts was greeted with a lot of applause.
Here it is.. Feasts a song for spice girls everywhere
When at nights you feel
On another’s tongue
Slanderous asafetida
Lime’s quick murderous knife
Sliding in among
Wild strawberry orgies
Arabesques of garlic
Curvaceous around
The sentinel cloves
You wonder about desire
How it can be found
Delicate as rosewater
Or frank as coriander
Rising from your lover’s
Breath, mustard fumey
What lingers after
You consume each other
Is this memory of spices
Dancing salt waltzes
And mint fritillaries
Waving to parsley fronds
Which is why the milky
Delicacy of Bangla mishti
Mystical varanasi rabri
Mysore pak melting piously
In your tolerant maws
Jalebies intricate twists
Like signatures support
Only a lesser cause
Affection, but not love
If you are truly hungry
You must melt the world
Into paprika agonies
Tympanum of turmeric
Masking rosemary swirls
And cumin confetti
Falling in the basil dusk
As you wander through
Legendary cinnamon groves
Even the jumpy machinations
Of ginger must taste to you
Sweet, if you have feasted on love.
Sagari Chhabra’s poetry dealt with social causes, her poem hunger, mocked the non- profit organizations and the government that are causing artificial food shortages. Her poem on the Iraq war was eloquent and angry.
The most beautiful and strong poetry was by the Urdu poet, Shahla Nigar. This young woman from Jamia Millia University, majoring in Urdu read her poetry like it was a ghazal, with stanzas often repeated to emphasize their importance. She wrote about being a Muslim girl in India and about the Urdu language. She is definitely a poet who is going to go places with her sensitivity, lyrical language and articulate manner.
Tarannum Riyaz, a poet from Kashmir wrote a lot of love poetry that sounded romantic and melancholy. Some of her lines were atma ki chinta nahi karo, vah sada khali rahte hai.
Also Mahasweta Devi, gave a speech at the Frankfurt book fair, about Indian freedom being still on hold, and requiring a moral transformation. Here is an excerpt.
I dream of an India to which the world backward does not and cannot ever apply. I wish to be third world no more, but first the only world. I wish for children to be educated. I wish for women to step into the light. I wish for justice for the common man. Survival for the farmer. Homes for the poor. And hope for all. I wish for debts to cease. For poverty to vanish. For hunger to become a bad word that no one utters. I wish for the environment to be protected, to be loved and restored. I wish the land to be healed, and waters to be pure again. For the tiger to survive. I wish for self reliance, for self respect, for independence from the shackles of superstition. I wish for equal medical aid for all.
Comments