Madhavikutty

Love-lorn, It is only Wise at times, to let sleep Make holes in memory, even If it Be the cold and Luminous sleep banked in The heart of pills, for he shall not Enter, You ruthless one, Being human, clumsy With noise and movement, the soul’s mute Arena, That silent sleep inside your sleep.

Kamla Das was born (March 31,1934) in a Nair family. She hails from the Southern Malabar in Kerala.  She opened her eyes in the beautiful lap of nature and blossomed beside a fathomless sea. As her  autobiography reveals her maiden name is Madhavikakutty. She attended a European school in  Kolkata then the elementary school at Punnayurkulam (her birth place) and then a boarding school  run by the Roman Catholic nuns. At the Catholic boarding school, she got ill and sent back to Kolkata where private tutors were engaged to teach her fine arts.  She was nurtured in an autocratic atmosphere in her home. About her parents’ and their relationship she reveals, “My mother did not fall in love with my father. They were dissimilar and horribly mismatched”1.But her mother’s timidity created an illusion of  domestic harmony and produced some half a dozen children of swarthy skin and ordinary features. Her parental home was influenced by the movement of Gandhi an...

Photo by  Cassi Josh  on  Unsplash When we were children My brother and I And always playing on the sands Drawing birds and animals Our great-grandmother said one day, You see this house of ours Now three hundred years old, It’s falling to little bits Before our very eyes The walls are cracked and torn And moistened by the rains, The tiles have fallen here and there The windows whine and groan And every night The rats come out of the holes And scamper past our doors. The snake-shrine is dark with weeds And all the snake-gods in the shrine Have lichen on their hoods. O it hurts me she cried, Wiping a reddened eye For I love this house, it hurts me much To watch it die. When I grow old, I said, And very very rich I shall rebuild the fallen walls And make new this ancient house. My great-grandmother Touched my cheeks and smiled. She was really simple. Fed on God for years All her feasts were monotonous For the only dish was always God And the rest mere condiments. She...

here is a charm around Kamala Das—the unapologetic poet, the enigmatic mistress of words—that still continues to lure readers, despite her demise almost a decade ago. Kamala openly introduced a generation to a subject that was taboo those days—she spoke on topics like coming of age and sexual yearnings of a woman. In her time, bold Kamala was certainly a trendsetter; an iconoclast who defied all conventions. Kamala’s writings open a window into the intricacies of the female mind, thought process, her tussles with the patriarchal setup to which she was bound, her quest for love, and her acknowledgement of the body’s carnal desires. Kamala, in word and deed, left behind many strong lessons for the women of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Connect with your body:  Kamala explored the human body, its nook and crannies, and took heed of its needs in her writings. She never shied away from laying bare the raw emotions of man and woman, exploring love and lust through the contours of ...

Unapologetic, mysterious and a flawless mistress of words; that is Kamala Surayya for you. Renowned for her honest and fearless exploration of the female psyche and sexuality in her works, Kamala Surayya is regarded an iconoclast way ahead of her time, who unlocked a space for women to finally speak of their desires and voice out their angst instead of fading into the four walls of marital and household duties. Born on 31 March 1934 in the sylvan town of Punnayurkulam in the district of Thrissur, Kamala’s love for writing and poetry, sprouted at an early age. She grew up in the midst of the literary legacy of her mother, the poet, Nalapat Balamani Amma, and great-uncle Nalapat Narayana Menon, who was an author. Read More at: The Better India

Kamala Das was one of the most prominent feminist voices in the postcolonial era. She wrote in her mother tongue Malayalam as well as in English. To her Malayalam readers she was Madhavi Kutty and to her English patrons she was Kamala Das. On account of her extensive contribution to the poetry in our country, she earned the label ‘The Mother of Modern Indian English Poetry’. She has also been likened to literary greats like Sylvia Plath because of the confessional style of her writing. On the occasion of her birth anniversary, we look into the remarkable life of this literary icon. Childhood Kamala Das was born on 31st March 1934. A part of her childhood was spent in her ancestral home in Malabar, Kerala and the other part in Calcutta where her father was posted for work. Kamala Das belonged to a family considered the literary royalty of Kerala. Her mother Balamani Amma was a famous poet and her grand uncle Nalapat Narayana Menon a respected writer. Das’ childhood as described in ...