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Fixations
Subbaram is not didactic even when he sends out a message. He reflects, and in the process forces us to introspect. While describing Dussehra in his poem Festivity he appears to go against the popular grain, "A king might have had a motive/in leading an army of gibbons:/to eliminate a demon of letters/who perhaps could not have been/handled by any other methodology`85" and ends up with "It’s time to implore: true festivity/is to castigate the evil within, and/that without will cast aside itself." He laments the self-centeredness of today in Strangers All: "One’s hand does not shake/the other’s anymore`85". In fact, he takes a look at different aspects of not only routine life but also nature, as these lines from Monsoon Offering exemplify: "An amalgamated, dark patch/intervenes slyly between/the sky and the earth/waiting to exchange words." A good read. How the Mind Forgets
and Remembers Absentmindedness is not such an uncommon phenomenon as be considered weird. When memory begins to play tricks one is left wondering at the complexities of the mind. The Spanish scientist Santiago Ram`F3n y Cajal once observed, "As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain, will also be a mystery." Schacter’s is an attempt to understand, explain and, if possible, unravel the mysteries of the mind. Peppered with anecdotes and examples this immensely readable book has chapters like The Sin of Blocking, The Sin of Bias etc. In fact, like the seven deadly sins, this book too enumerates the memory-related seven sins and suggests ways to avoid these. Writing and
Publishing Children’s Books Children have been central to the thinking of various intellectuals since time immemorial. A stanza from a poem by the late Lebanese mystic and poet Kahlil Gibran goes like this, "You may give them your love but not your thoughts./ For they have their own thoughts./ You may house their bodies but not their souls, /For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,/ which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams." Indeed it requires rare
sensitivity and insight to understand the psyche of the child, and the
universe he lives in. This is why children’s literature is a
specialised genre that cannot be mastered by all. In order to write for
him one should be able to look at the world through a kid’s eyes and
let imagination fly to the worlds that only a child is aware of.
Unfortunately, despite our hoary literary traditions, we do not have
very many authors of children’s books. The book seeks to bring
publishers of children’s books from the SAARC countries onto a common
platform for common good of the region’s kids. Hope the enterprise
succeeds. |
JOHN Keats described poesy
as a "drainless shower of light". Others have compared it to a
mirror, Cinderella etc. Poetry is all these and more. For a poet it is
as much a process of finding solace as it is a weapon for fighting
personal and societal demons.