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| Cover of Anudinada Antaragangey. |
-Brian Mendonca
Attending a session of Kannada poetry yesterday, I was enthralled to hear poet Prathibha Nandakumar (b. 1955) read her poems.* My friend Naveena K of Government First Grade College for Women, Shivamogga had invited me and shared a PDF of her poems - an e-volume- as she aptly referred to it, hosted on the poetry website poemhunter. The poems have been translated from the Kannada by the poet herself. There is a remarkable felicity keeping to the intent of the original.
The poem 'Amma's Death' immediately caught my eye as it was also the anniversary of my father's passing yesterday. 'Death connects cultures and bridges boundaries,' I commented later in my intervention in the session. What struck me about the poem - and I told Prathibha that - was how she was able to turn a very intimate moment suffused with the grief of her amma's passing, into a social critique. I was so glad that she obliged when I asked her to read it. It prompted her to say that she had written many poems on death following the sudden demise of the Kannada poet and scholar A.K.Ramanujan (1929-1993).
The poem takes a wry look at the death rituals being chanted for the dying mother even when she is gasping for her last breath. It foregrounds how women are sidelined by the priests in the ceremonies. At the end the poet satisfies herself that she has managed to swipe the moonstone nose ring of her mother before she is smothered in the pyre. With this she exults that her amma's sparkle remains with her. However in true matrilineal manner the poem ends with the poet's daughter asking if she would give her her diamond nose ring before she herself dies. This was not a 'Night of the Scorpion' by Nissim Ezekiel, it was instead purely Prathibha - telling it like it is - no gloves on.
What was most impressive was the spare vocabulary she used to get her point across. She starts most unassumingly, 'Showing the telegram helped her get a seat in the over-crowded train.' She numbly follows the rituals, 'since there was no question of gender equality.' It is these passing references that are taken as a priori that show the fire with which Prathibha writes. Yet the poignancy remains. Amma is a word that has many fond connotations. It even closes the poem by Kannada poet Vaidehi (b. 1945) - featured in an earlier web lecture - where she wraps the sari around her in her poem titled 'My Mother's Sari.'
As Dr. Avinash Tambarsi mentioned, the series was an an attempt to decolonize English literature. It was an attempt to reach into one's own culture and its hybridity through translation. Observing how Prathibha's poems were ex-centric (a la Spivak) Ms. Viswanatha elaborated on how they evoke sankirna / complexity - they are down to earth at the same time they deal with complex issues. (Elaboration of the term by Naveena, now Director, FOCET)
In her autobiography Anudinada Antarangey [Love for Life, Life for Love] Prathibha writes about her experience in love, an inkling of which we get in her 'Forbidden' series.
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*Third Text-based Web lecture on 'Poetry of Prathibha Nandakumar' organized by Kuvempu University Forum of College English Teachers (FOCET). Resource person, Vanamala Viswanatha, Bengalaru. 20 July 2021. Pic courtesy acrazymindseye(dot)wordpress.com
Comments
I took me to the poems itself.
Love you style.
Cheers