The November issue is up and three of my poems are in it! 
Pelicans on The Brisbane River
This poem happened in Brisbane but was not written down until a few years after! Below are a couple of pictures that captured the scene:
Pelicans chasing our boat
Pelicans going after the fish that we offered
“poetry is everywhere
poetry is everything
poetry is you”
Folks Poetry with Prakriti, the brand new site is up!
This year too there is an exciting line up of poetic voices at the Prakriti Foundation’s Poetry Festival spread in venues across the city of Chennai. From the old and revered to the young and fresh and in between!
Aditi Machado, Dr. Alka Pande, Annie Zaidi, Anuradha Mazumdar, Aruni Kashyap, Ayesha Chatterji, Deepika Arvind, EV Ramakrishnan, Gopika Jadeja, Keki N Daruwalla, Mahua, Mamang Dai, Nitoo Das, Parnab Mukherjee, Rati Saxena, Sampurna Chatterji, Tendzin Tsundue, Hoshang Merchant, S. Murali and Dr. Rizio Yohannan Raj.
Prakriti’s Foundation’s website has the details. See the details and read the sample poems there
And yes, for all poets, aspiring ad experienced, there is a poetry competition. Read the details here
I love Poetry with Prakriti’s tagline! Here it is again:
“poetry is everywhere
poetry is everything
poetry is you”
Tank up with Poetry!
After I finished reading Mridula Koshy’s debut collection of short stories, I pondered about the title. What had made her choose it? The title of this book comes from the last part of the last sentence of the second story in the collection – “I wondered what they were eating, and if it was sweet.” At least that’s what I presumed. There are no other clues. As far as titles go, this one left a lot unsaid.
So what drew me in? This was after all a brand new author. I have become somewhat wary of new authors writing in English on the Indian block. What if I didn’t like her writing after all? How would I handle it? It’s a different thing altogether to pour vitriol on a writer you have never met – it is never personal, it’s only about the book. To add to my consternation, I had genuinely liked the author when I got a chance to speak with her at her reading in Chennai. All these thoughts ran through my mind, before I began to read, even though I had already read some of Mridula Koshy’s stories online.
To be honest, by the time the book came out, I was already familiar with Mridula Koshy’s name. I loved the few stories by her that I had read so far. Here was a writer, I felt who could create a noise in her reader’s head without being noisy. There was also a surprising quality in her writing. I was naturally eager to lay my hands on “If It Is Sweet,” her very first book. Still, that cautious voice in my head said, one or two swallows do not make a summer; there’s too much buzz happening all around, for all you know you may end up being disappointed. I decided to heed the voice in my head. And, thus began my passage through the pages of “If It Is Sweet,” with caution and wariness.
The first story in the book, “The Good Mother” was also the first story of hers that I had read. Not once, but twice. I did not ignore it when I opened the book, but read through it, quickly. As one would when crossing a familiar-ish path, with quickened pace because there is a destination and a purpose at the end of it, but not sprinting either, for the journey through that path is a pleasurable one.
The second story was POP. I was already curious about it because she (Mridula) had introduced it to us during the Chennai launch of her book. I remembered her saying, just before she read an excerpt, that they – the real life people who inspired the story pronounced POP (Plaster of Paris, though at first I thought she meant Point of Purchase!) like one word, not spelling out the abbreviation and not like an acronym either; in other words, they said PEEYOPEE, rolling the letters into one word and not “pop.” This is a small detail, one that many of us would have overlooked, but for Mridula Koshy this pronunciation quirk became the focal point of a bitter- tender short story that lingered long after it was read; something like the after notes of sweet masala paan in my mouth.
The third story “Jeans” had me in a tizzy! Literally! I ran to check my derriere in jeans after reading this passage in the story: ” you should see yourself from the back. Each of your behinds is separate and your underwear cuts each one into half again. See – like this orange – you’re full of sections. Your behind jiggles in four different sections.” But seriously, this one with its deliberately jerky flow and disparate range of characters was an interesting and intimate viewpoint held together at the crotch of a pair of jeans.
The fourth story “The Large Girl” is another tender story of doomed love, and its last lines – ” I will begin soon to live all the days ahead of me. In the afternoons, I will think: do you miss me? Do you miss me? A thousand and one chances will come and go in this small city, in this small world. I will never see you again” – pealed again and again with quiet sorrow long past reading.
“Companion”, the fifth story is a little more than a fable. It is also a parable, an allegory. Everybody loves a story that is slipstream or magic realism, and I am no different. This one ends with a chill down one’s spine and makes you take another look at the story just read. You wonder what exactly has been lurking behind the story all along; certainly not a harmless monkey’s tail.
Many of Mridula Koshy’s stories demand a second and sometimes third look. Simple ordinary occurences, situations, characters and scenes seem to have another facet to them, one you discover after you have already moved on to the next part of the story or finished reading it altogether. This is a disconcerting tendency. Her readers have to be engaged all the time, even though she has made no apparent demands on them. But her readers want to be engaged. You cannot dismiss her stories with a “loved them!” or a ”Congrats. Good Read.” Mridula Koshy’s stories have a habit of working on the reader long after they are read.
“Today is the Day,” the sixth story is another tender and sad story. It is probably one of the stories that got her labeled by some journalist as a “proletariat writer” whatever that means! I read a few more stories in her book that dealt with the lower rungs of our multi-layered society – “Romancing the Koodawalla,” “Not Known,” “Stray Blades of Grass” and “Same Day.” And this is what came across to me – that Mridula Koshy is not out to spread messages about child labour or the dirty underbelly of shining India; that these are people she has come across, people from many and diverse backgrounds and classes; that these stories are the stories she has seen in their faces, heard in their voices. There are no judgements passed, no agendas presented. Hers is a very humane eye and her writing style has a child’s refreshing candour about it. As a writer she is only concerned with getting her stories across to her reader clearly. In order to do this she lets her language temper the flow of her narratives, finally culminating in the visually arresting last lines that are ever so often like poetry. Take these lines for example, taken from the story “Same Day” - ”It’s a long wait for Charu. When she comes, she is trailing a string of buoyant hearts.” – simple, straight forward words, but what a picture they throw up in our minds!
There are stories about other people in India and specifically New Delhi which serves as the backdrop for a majority of the stories … As well as stories about expat Indians and Sri Lankans in the USA, a country she has lived for long years – “When the Child was a Child,” “3-2-1, First Time” and then there is “Passage” a story of loss and mourning straddling two continents. Actually the themes of loss and sorrow permeate most of the stories; one could say that this is the thread that binds the stories to the volume, and it reminds me of lines read long ago from Shelley’s ”To a Skylark” – Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Then suddenly the title of this collection draws meaning, whether intended or not.
I am seriously tempted to write a few lines on each and every one of the seventeen stories in “If It Is Sweet.” But that would be giving too much away. This is after all a book of short stories. Speaking of which, I don’t know why there is this seeming (to me at least) taking up of cudgels for the short story form, with publishers saying it is unsellable and writers and reading groups and magazines “trying to revive the form!” I really don’t understand how or when the interest in short stories waned. The short story is alive and well; this narrative form is literally kicking up a storm with readers; it never went out of fashion and never will!
For as long as I can remember, I have always tested new ground through short story anthologies and collections. The best way to know a new author is to read his or her short fiction. And as far as I know, I am certainly not alone.
Short stories are a sweet deal really. When you want a compact reading experience or don’t know the author but your interest is piqued, only a book of short stories can offer that smorgasbord of literary experience, that feast of discovery and delight, some savoured for their piquancy, some crunched between the molars, some bitten in chunks and chewed, some first quaffed down and then allowed to linger at the back of your throat. A skilled writer provides most, if not all of these reading experiences in a single collection. And that is probably the reason, I’d say, shaking my head vigorously, that Mridula Koshy’s book “If It Is Sweet” wasn’t sweet for me. It was a lot more. It was a smorgasbord!
As I said earlier, I had read a couple of the stories on the internet and became enamoured of Mridula’s unique voice – so had she come out with a novel first I would have read that too. It so happens that Tranquebar Press put together seventeen of her short stories. I enjoyed every one of them; some more and some less, but all of them were well above what I call the water mark of readability!
I collect books and have a special fondness for short story anthologies, like many genuine readers out there. And like them, I too have this habit of reading passages, chapters and stories again and again. I know that I will read these stories again sometime in the future. There are some authors one can return to. Mridula Koshy is one of them.
Happy Reading!
“Poetry from the Rooftop of the World” is the poetry event on the Fall 2009 Lyceum Events schedule. The program features Nepalese poet and translator Yuyutsu RD Sharma who will read from his original works beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 12. The setting for the reading is Morrison Hall Mansion on the campus of SUNY Orange, 115 South Street, Middletown, NY. Morrison Hall is ADA compliant. This event is free and open to the public. This Lyceum event is sponsored in part by the Department of English, SUNY Orange.
Presently on tour in Canada, Yuyu Sharma will come to Orange County in mid-November. At Morrison Hall, he will first acquaint the audience with Nepal and its poetry, and then read selections from his eight poetry collections.
The original link:
http://www.sunyorange.edu/wea/grapevine/campus/announcementShow?ann_id=268
Nepalese poet and translator Yuyutsu RD Sharma:
More about Yuyutsu Sharma:
www.yuyutsu.de
http://yuyutsurdsharma.blogspot.com/
www.niralapublications.com
New books Yuyutsu Sharma
Annapurnas and Stains of Blood:
Life Travels and Writing on a Page of Snow
( Nirala Publications, New Delhi-2)
Space Cake, Amsterdam,
& Other Poems from Europe and America
(Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009)
Poemes De L’Himalaya – Yuyutsu R. D. Sharma
Published by L’Harmattan, Paris
http://editions-harmattan.fr/
The announcement (in bold type below) is a copy of the mail sent to me by The Prakriti Foundation.
The details of last year’s festival and the participating poets are still uploaded in their website, so take a look to get an idea about the range of poets and poetry that Chennai enjoyed last year! Also if you are thinking of entering the poetry contest, do take a look at last year’s prize-winning poems here.
The year before that, at The Prakriti Foundation’s very first Poetry Festival, two very talented poets of different poetic breaths - Anuradha Vijayakrishnan and Michael Creighton - took the first and second prizes respectively. If you want to get a sense of their poetry, do google their names, you won’t be disappointed. Far from it! From last year’s poetry contest, my personal favourite was Anupama Raju’s exquisite poem “No Borders” which won the third prize. Anupama Raju’s is also a familiar name among India’s talented young poets.
Here’s the announcement:
Once again it is poetry time at Prakriti Foundation. We take great pleasure in inviting you to ‘Poetry with Prakriti’ a two-week long festival of poetry being held from the 16th to the 30th of December 2009 in Chennai to coincide with the famed Chennai season. We have planned this festival featuring 25 eminent and emerging poets, each of whom will present four different readings of their poems to a small and intimate audience of between 40 to 75 people. These readings have been planned at several venues in the city, including colleges and cafeteria, IT parks and green public parks and spaces, and select shops and commercial establishments.
Details of poets who are part of this festival can be had from our website
We look forward to your attending as many poetry readings as possible.
As part of the festival, Prakriti Foundation invites you to participate in the Poetry Contest. Rules of the contest are:
Age Group: Contest is open to resident citizens of India aged 16 years and above
Jury: Distinguished panel of three judges
Prizes: Three cash prizes of Rs.10000/-, Rs.7500/- and Rs.5000/- each
Closing date 15th December 2009. Results will be declared on 30th December
No. of entries : One poem for each contestant
Entries should be a soft copy sent by e-mail. All entries have to be accompanied by a declaration of originality and automatic disqualification will occur should the committee detect a fraud.
E-mail your entries to prakritifoundation@gmail.com
Something very interesting is happening at Glorioustimes, the online literary group run by writer/editor Glory S Franklin!
Nu Cham Vu is being launched online, with discussions and conversations between Shreekumar Varma (Nu’s creator), American writer Miranda Kennedy and of course all the other writers in Glorioustimes.
You have to become a member to take part, but that is hardly a hurdle. Glory is the moderator of this writers’ group; you would need introduce yourself to her.
Here’s the link again:
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/glorioustimes/
And more information about
Shreekumar Varma:
http://themagicstoreofnuchamvu.homestead.com/index.html
http://shreevarma.homestead.com/
http://thinkopotamus.blogspot.com/
And
Miranda Kennedy: The author of a forthcoming narrative nonfiction book about the lives of six women in India. It is a first-hand account of the contradiction between India’s rapid modernization and its underlying social conservatism. The book will be published by Random House in the US in January 2011. Until 2007, Miranda was a New Delhi-based correspondent for American Public Media’s “Marketplace” Radio. During her five years living in India, she often reported from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and her stories from around the region were heard on National Public Radio programs, and read in The Boston Globe, The Nation, and Slate Magazine. Now based in Washington, DC, Miranda’s most recent full-time job was as an editor at National Public Radio.
http://www.mirandakennedy.com/
Nu Cham Vu is out of the closet. Nu Cham Vu is at large! Nu Cham Vu will get ‘em soon… in Bangalore. So watch out folks!
Nu Cham Vu, who?
Ah! The answer to that question lies in the book my pretty! I haven’t yet got my talons into it, but I will. Oh yes I will! Before my daughter gets home I will! But all you lucky, lucky folks who live in Bangalore, you can get up and close with the creature and its creator!
Here’s a personal invitation from those behind the scene:
I still haven’t begun writing. But these were accepted a few months back and slotted for the October 2009 issue of Kritya.
http://www.kritya.in/0505/En/poetry_at_our_time.html
The rest of the poems are here
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