Poems by Malashri Lal
Reviewed by Santosh Bakaya
Mandalas of Time – Poems
Malashri La
Hawakal Publishers Private Ltd. Delhi, Kolkata August 2023
Price: INR 500 [Hardback]
PP 111
Foreword: Bashabi Fraser
Afterword: Ranjit Hoskote COSMOPOLITANISM, MULTIPLICITIES
In the 75 poems, in her debut poetry collection, Malashri Lal traverses eclectic themes seamlessly, the poems marked by a soul- stirring sublimity, a soothing harmony, and an endearing honesty. Her writing sparkles, with a masterly touch. Her pen effortlessly flows on paper, taking us to Kashmir, Italy, Summerhill, Shimla, and many other places, also making the heart trill to the euphonious notes of Sound of Music.
Let me mention that the poet’s note, Poetry- the Healing Touch has the feel of a hand offering a soft, therapeutic balm.
Recalling the anguished exhortation of Gurudeb Rabindranath, she says,
“When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds also my healing.”p 17
She further writes, “Staying at a schloss in Salzburg for a Writers Residency, I saw crowds training their cameras at the building before realising that it had been the location for the film, Sound of Music. No wonder that many participants took to humming ‘Edelweiss’.
“Closer to home, passing Amber Fort in Jaipur ever so frequently, I was intrigued by the story of Shila Devi who had journeyed from Jessore to Bengal to Rajasthan. Dare I say she was my inspiration for cultural relocations? Poetry- The Healing Touch, P 16
Dexterously weaving together life’s myriad lessons, existential angst, heartbreak, bereavement, betrayal which can have personal and universal connotations, and a rich cultural heritage, this book is a celebration. An exulation. A rumination.
Profound, poignant and philosophical, some poetic slivers cling to you, refusing to let go.
In the evocative poem Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, I was swept off by the imagery, so much so, that I found myself matching step by step with Julie Andrews as she dances and sings, “I have confidence in sunshine, confidence in rain.” So gripped was I by the memory of that song, dance and steps, that it was a huge task for me to stop myself from ringing the bell to a stranger’s house, not unlike Julie Andrews!
“The Sound of Music played from every nook in this villa.
I loved the old and lived in the new,
Longed for the crinoline, crumpets and cream
While Battling computers and cross references”. P101
“The sensuous abundance of the natural world pervades Malashri Lal’s Mandalas of time” says Ranjit Hoskote in the Afterword. In her poems we glimpse an abundance of flowers and trees- carnation, harsingar, dahlia, bougainvillea, chameli, champa and hibiscus. He says, for her, nature is ‘an intimate, integral part of a continuum that includes the human realm, with all its discontents.”
The book has a special enchantment for me, because like the poet, I spent my growing years in Jaipur, Rajasthan, and I continue to be bewitched by its majestic forts, camels and elephants, although my roots in Kashmir with the pine, oak, deodar, lakes and streams keep beckoning me. The poignant lyricism of the verses resonates through one’s soul, as one feels her Kolkata roots pulling her back to memories of Shantiniketan, and to the great rivers of her birthplace. As I read the poems, I could hear River Lidder of Kashmir, with its rippling- roaring garrulity, here in my home at Jaipur. She calms herself by saying, “while I struggled with my identity flitting between Rajasthan and Bengal unable to claim either”
“Then I leant from Gurudev
Emotions have no fixed language
The mind has no physical limits
Music resounds in the open sky
Dance is the joy of a free spirit everywhere.” [To Rabindranath Tagore P 83]
Going through the book is a culturally immersive experience-my mind jingled with chunks of Rajasthan folk songs- Pallo latkey gori ko pallo latkey, and it even transported me right in the middle of the kalbeliya dancers.
Steeped in the lingering aura of nostalgia, Professor Lal deftly captures the lights and shades of life, I could almost feel the words leaping from the pages and become real- throbbing with emotions.
She has co- edited books on Sita and Radha, with Namita Gokhale, and in this book,
she makes us look at Manthra and Kaikayi- women reviled in Hindu Mythology in a positive light.
In Manthra Dasi, P 26 we hear Manthra wailing, and asking, whether she had a crooked soul just because she was ugly looking ?
“Could I close my ears to those barbs – Kobra, Hunchback, shame, oh shame’
“The neglected corners in their narrative found a niche in my poetry.” She says.
Her poetry “captures those inner dialogues, the cracked mirror of troubled consciousness, the silent cry of those who have travelled beyond tears.” P 17
The reader is even privy to the smells emanating from Sita’s rasoi p 34
“No bias.
No trespass
No waste
Food is that holds us humans together.”
.In Amnesia, P 87, she echoes my words when she writes of the searing pain following a jab in the arm tumbling through her body. The last four lines of the poem stayed with me, again echoing my plea for a painless and peaceful world.
“My memory asks for the luxury of such a jab
where languorous amnesia
will paint dreams in psychedelic colours
Of a world without melancholy”.
The last poem Easter lilies in an Empty Home p 108 says it all.
“They calmly grace the garden of a silent home
The owners alive only in obituaries
The lilies don’t worry on that count
Buried bulbs know they will creep upwards in season
Life’s renewal is a blissful certainty.”
Clinging on to these positive lines, I close the book and sigh, seeing myself in the child climbing up the hillside:
‘spine curved to brace against
The cold winter breeze
Trudging through the bright- eyed
Daisies and prickly thorns” [Winter in Landour, P 105]
Then you pick up the book once again to mull over, ‘the inner dialogues, the cracked mirror of troubled consciousness, the silent cry of those who have travelled beyond tears.”-and doff you hat to the poet whose tender verses carry you with her, making you see a mother’s ‘tremulous smile’ ‘in the shimmer of an unsteady wave on the lake’ [Dreaming of ma by the Sea, P 42].
Hush, something tugs at your heart again! What is it? It is the sweet melody of Krishna’s flute.
Hush, something more, the ankle bells tinkling from the ankles of the Bhopa singers from a mela ground in Jaipur. And you watch transfixed as the scene unfolds before your eyes. There, you again hear something. This time it’s the trilling of the ‘birds on the crumbling parapet. ‘Simplicity, p 63
This is a book you always want to keep by your nightstand, and delve into whenever you feel like. Highly recommended for all lovers of poetry.
ABOUT THE POET
Bio of Poet: Malashri Lal, writer and academic with sixteen books to her credit, retired as Professor, English Department, University of Delhi. She has served on the advisory board of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, and is currently Member, General Council, and Convenor of the English Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi [Akademi of Letters], Government of India.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Bio of Reviewer: Santosh Bakaya, PhD, poet, essayist, novelist, biographer, Tedx speaker, has written twenty- four very well-received books across different genres.Her TEDxTalk on The Myth of Writers’ Block is very popular in creative writing classes. She runs a very popular column, Morning Meanderings in Learning and Creativity website.
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