While focusing on her verse tucked in her poetry volume titled ‘The Throb of Silenc, there’s verse after verse which holds out. Accompanied by sleek sketches, which just about add to the intensity… there’s a diversity to her verse but what hold out all along are subtle emotions engulfing each verse. A book review by Humra Quraishi
Title of the book – The Throb of Silence
Author – Thamizhachi Thangapandian
Translation from Tamil to English – K S Subramanian
Publisher – Vitasta
Pages – 158
Price – Rs 425
Last week at the Bangalore Poetry Festival, I met the graceful and beautiful Parliamentarian Dr T. Sumathy (aka) Thamizhachi Thangapandian. In fact, when she entered the venue auditorium, all of us turned to see her …she looked a beautiful heroine along the traditional strain. Later, as I was introduced to her, one realized she’s a Parliamentarian (DMK) and a short story writer, a poet and an academic. Above all, a soft spoken, humble and modest person.
I have been reading her two freshly launched books. A poetry volume and also a short story collection. This week I’m focusing on her verse tucked in her poetry volume titled – The Throb of Silence.
There’s verse after verse which holds out. Accompanied by sleek sketches, which just about add to the intensity… there’s a huge range, a diversity to her verse but what hold out all along are subtle emotions engulfing each verse.
Leaving you with her this absolutely hitting verse. Titled – Al Janabi’s Sixth Finger – it carries a vital backgrounder to it:
Al Janabi’s Sixth Finger:
‘In Baghdad/
on a March noon/
with the grating and neighing/
of old and decrepit horses/
Time knocked at your door/
With the stamp of youth still strong/
the grip of dominance on the one side/
the masculine arrogance/
on the other /
held captive/
Your body slipping /
as a lump of flesh/
as the sixth finger/
alienated from you,/
your six-year old sister watching you/
with the remnant of a sweet/
you had both shared/
still lingering in her molar /
In eerie silence they watched /
the violent rape of land and woman/
your mother hiding her veil/
and your father at gunpoint/
Inhaling the stench of rancid blood/
the doddering horses panting away /
set out Time/
Only witnesses /
a flutter of dove wings/
just a poem.
( Five American soldiers gang raped and killed 14-year old Abeer Qassim Al – Janabi. This is considered to be one of the significant atrocities of American soldiers in Iraq).’
