Kamala Das
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Kamala Suraiya, better known as Kamala Das, is a well-known Indian writer writing in English as well as Malayalam, her native language. She is considered one of the outstanding Indian poets writing in English, although her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography. Much of her writing in Malayalam came under the pen name Madhavikkutty. She was born on March 31, 1934 in Malabar in Kerala, India. She is the daughter of V.M. Nair, a former managing editor of the widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess. In 1984, she was short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature along with Marguerite Yourcenar, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer. Kamala Das is probably the first Hindu woman to openly and honestly talk about sexual desires of Indian woman, which made her an iconoclast of her generation.
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[edit] Biography
She spent her childhood between Calcutta, where her father was employed, and the Nalappatt ancestral home at Ponnayoorkulam in south Malabar region. Her husband often played a fatherly role for both Das and her sons. Because of the great age difference between Kamala and her husband, he often encouraged her to associate with people of her own age.
Like her mother, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalappatt Narayan Menon, a prominent writer. However, she did not start writing professionally till she was married and became a mother. When Das wished to begin writing, her husband supported her decision to augment the family's income. Being the housewife, she could not use the morning-till-night schedule enjoyed by her great uncle. She would wait until nightfall after her family had gone to sleep and would write until morning: "There was only the kitchen table where I would cut vegetables, and after all the plates and things were cleared, I would sit there and start typing" (Warrior interview). This rigorous schedule took its toll upon her health, but she views her illness optimistically. It gave her more time at home, and thus, more time to write.
She is famous for her many Malayalam short stories as well as many poems written in English. The Keralite is recognized as one of the foremost poetesses of India. She is also a syndicated columnist. She has moved away from poetry because she claims that "poetry does not sell in this country [India]," but fortunately her forthright columns do. Her columns sound off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics.
[edit] Writings in English
Her first book, Summer In Calcutta was a promising start. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish, and Indian readers in 1965 responded sympathetically to her guileless, guiltless frankness with regard to sexual matters. Ms. Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time when Indian women poets were still expected to write about teenage girlie fantasies of eternal, bloodless, unrequited love.
Musing of a lonely heart is a common theme in her poems. It seeks love with never ending passion. Lust, greed and hunger never satiate and finally the mind becomes an old playhouse with all its lights put out. For Das, poetry (or love?) is “The April sun squeezed like an orange juice”, the heat permeates into the reader’s mind. When she is moving to a new city, “Sadness becomes a silent stone in the river’s unmoving core”. She bid farewell to “the shadows behind the windowpane, the rain, the yellow moon, the crowd and the sea”. This sensitivity is the strength of her poetry.
At 42, she published My Story, baring the secrets of her heart. It creates a lot of interest and controversies though not for any literary value. The book was translated into several foreign languages—more than 15. Feminists across the world hailed it as a bold step in the patriarchal society.
[edit] Writings in Malayalam
Madhavikutty is one of the foremost short story writers in Malayalam. In any listing, she figures among the top 5 writers, even after considering the personal choices and socio-cultural background of the readers. She writes, with dexterity, the story of poor old servant in Punnayoorkulam or the sexual disposition of upper middle class women living near a metropolitan city in the middle of the ghetto.
She treats the words as a mother cow licking and cleaning the new born calf with utmost care. Each word is irreplaceable. Her widely acclaimed stories include Pakshiyude Maranam, 'Neypayasam, Thanuppu, and Chandana Marangal'. Other than short stories, she wrote a few novels, among which Neermathalam Pootha Kalam received an unparalleled attention among both serious and casual readers. It recreates the nostalgia of an old ancestral home with it adjacent snake shrine. It is often said that even her casual talks falls in the genre of short stories. Such is her creative genius that even after succumbing to several unwanted controversies, people still endear her as some close to heart.
[edit] Awards and other recognitions
Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution. Some of them are; Asian Poetry Prize for her work, Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries, Asan World Prize, Ezhuthachan Award, Sahitya Academy Award, Vayalar Award, Kerala Sahitya Academy Award. She has traveled extensively to read poetry to Germany's Essen, Bonn and Duisburg universities, Adelaide Writer’s Festival, Frankfurt Book Fair, University of Kingston, Jamaica, Singapore and South Banks Festival London, Concordia University Montreal, Canada, Columbia University, New York, Qatar, Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, etc. Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese.
She has also held coveted positions as Vice chair person in Kerala Sahitya Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry Board, President of Kerala Children Film Society Orient editor of Poet magazine and Poetry editor of Illustrated Weekly of India.
[edit] Conversion to Islam. political adventures and other controversies
Born in a conservative Hindu Nair family, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Suraiya. Like the themes of her stories, conversion too, kicked up much heat and dust in the social and literary circles. People wondered how a person of such rebellious thoughts, writings, and life could conform to conservative Islam. But inconsistency is inherent in her character. In a 1984 interview, she made the following statement: "Yes, I know, yesterday I might have been against liberation, today I am for it. Tomorrow I do not know what I would say and how I feel".
Her statements like “I’m converting Krishna into Allah and making him the Prophet after naming him Mohammed. If you go to Guruvayoor now Krishna will not be there he will be with me” infuriated Sangh Parivar and she started receiving threatening calls. They cannot digest when some one who has written
- Krishna, I am melting,
- Melting, melting
- Nothing remains
- But you
Suddenly starts writing,
- Ya Allah
- I perceive the Prophet's features, as
- yet unrevealed, on my beloved's
- mien...
But her serious readers observed the same undercurrents lying beneath both lines , even though they brushed aside the conversion stunt as another episode in her histrionics. The reason generally believed among her closed circles is that she was in love with a [Muslim]] politician, and that she wanted to marry him. In fact, she had admitted in an interview,“It is true that I am in love. I am in love with a person. Only four persons know my mobile number. My three sons and my lover. I plan to marry him in six months”.
When the government decided to give the prestigious Ezhuthachan award to her, considering her overall contribution to literature, the Sangh Parivar criticised the decision, saying that Surayya had nothing in common with the poet in whose name the award was instituted.
In 1976 when her autobiography – My Story was published, it created an uproar. People were shocked reading her sexual adventures. She portrayed herself as ‘’ready for love, ripe for a sexual banquet’’. Long showers of abuses were waiting for her. People took her fantasies as the real life explorations. Many considered her as a “bad” woman. However it never affected her literary appeal.
In the 1980's, she started another adventure—dabbling in art, mostly of nude women. When she released her first nude painting , she proclaimed: "I find the nude female body the most beautiful in the world."
She was also active in politics in India, and has launched a national political party known as the Lok Seva Party, to concentrate on humanitarian work as well as to provide asylum to orphaned mothers and promote secularism. In 1984, she contested to parliament, but failed.
[edit] Bibliography
English
- 1964: The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner)
- 1965: Summer in Calcutta (poetry; Kent's Award winner)
- 1967: The Descendants (poetry)
- 1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry)
- 1976: My Story (autobiography)
- 1977: Alphabet of Lust (novel)
- 1985: The Anamalai Poems (poetry)
- 1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories)
- 1996: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry)
- 2001: yaa Allah (collection of poems) published by [IPH]
Malayalam
- 1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories)
- 1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories)
- 1968: Thanuppu (short story, Sahitya Akadami award)
- 1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories)
- 1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before)
- 1990: Palayan (novel)
- 1991: Neypayasam (short story)
- 1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel)
- 1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam(novel, Vayalar Award winner)
- 1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories)
- 1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories)
- 2005: Chandana Marangal (Novel)
- 2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)
