{"id":11970,"date":"2011-06-16T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/mofussil-notebook-poems-of-small-town\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T21:21:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:51:33","slug":"mofussil-notebook-poems-of-small-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/mofussil-notebook-poems-of-small-town\/","title":{"rendered":"MOFUSSIL NOTEBOOK: Poems of Small-town India"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

<\/p>\n

\nEXPLORE MORE OF INDIA WITH<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIDEAINDIA.COM<\/p>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n <\/b> <\/b><\/div>\n
\nPublisher of<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nE-BOOKS  E-ARTICLES AND PHOTOS ON INDIA<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMOFUSSIL NOTEBOOK: Poems of Small-town India<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\neBook by<\/b><\/div>\n
\nSMITA AGARWAL<\/p>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nLike the epigraph couplet of the eighteenth century Urdu poet, Zauq, Smita Agarwal\u2019s second book of poems casts a wry and amused glance at the world around her. While poems like \u201cCatechesis\u201d, \u201cUndergraduate Indian English\u201d and \u201cMofussil Mummies\u201d explore the colonial hangover, others like \u201cI Love You\u201d reveal, with tolerant irony, the curious blend of tradition and modernity which is contemporary India.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAgarwal\u2019s landscapes shift from Allahabad to Ladakh to Times Square and her emotions from playful (\u201cMy Bindi\u201d) to stark (\u201cMoving On\u201d). She also experiments with form as in \u201cGhazal: Civil Lines\u201d, \u201cThese Days\u201d (the Hindi kavi sammelan) and the folk in \u201cBinsar Barahmasa\u201d.<\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nReviews <\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSmita Agarwal\u2019s treatment of \u201clife\u2019s disenchantment\u2019s … with rare sensitivity and without a trace of self-pity prove that she is a first-rate poet from whom we can expect great writing.\u201d    Khushwant Singh in Hindustan Times.<\/b><\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nSmita Agarwal\u2019s poems \u201cveer from the exotic to the defamiliarized\u201d yet she \u201coffers glimpses of optimism\u201d in her \u201cpainfully grown-up pieces.\u201d Devon Campbell-Hall in Wasafiri.<\/b><\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nSmita Agarwal\u2019s poems \u201chave the fine tenor of a practiced musician.\u201d   Outlook<\/b>. <\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nTHESE DAYS<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis summer, the mango tree bore aubergines;<\/div>\n
\nThese days, you can\u2019t trust in anything.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nA young man, dying, made off with his nurse:<\/div>\n
\nThese days you can\u2019t trust anyone \u2026<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMy spouse cooed, \u201cI love you deary \u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\nThe next minute he was smooching his secretary.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Ganges burst its banks \u2026<\/div>\n
\nThe Ganges burst its banks and flooded the streets;<\/div>\n
\nLalu Yadav placated us by saying the goddess<\/div>\n
\nWished to kiss the common man\u2019s feet \u2026<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nRamlila, the story of an ideal prince, has changed its format.<\/div>\n
\nBar girls gyrate to film tunes,<\/div>\n
\nWhile Suparnakha, in her act of seduction,<\/div>\n
\nJumps into Laxman\u2019s lap.<\/div>\n
\nAnd we, the public, hiss and clap \u2026<\/div>\n
\nGod\u2019s life story acquires a celluloid tinge \u2026<\/div>\n
\nHow shall we place our trust in anything?<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn the land of Buddha, man and beast co-exist in peace.<\/div>\n
\nIn overcrowded railway stations, don\u2019t be taken aback<\/div>\n
\nIf you witness this scene. A defeated Indian in dhoti and kurta,<\/div>\n
\nCasually sipping his tea. A cow walks up to him<\/div>\n
\nWhen his back is turned; it dips its head and pushes<\/div>\n
\nIts wet muzzle into the cleft of his bottom<\/div>\n
\nAnd gives him a tender nuzzle.<\/div>\n
\nNever touched like this, he shamelessly allows<\/div>\n
\nHimself to like it \u2026 for, ever since the mango sprouted aubergines,<\/div>\n
\nWe Indians don\u2019t allow anything to surprise us,<\/div>\n
\nSince we never put our trust in anything.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSanthara is the Jain ritual of embracing death by giving up food.<\/div>\n
\nVimla Devi, all of sixty, suffering from an incurable brain tumour<\/div>\n
\nDecides to practise it and liberate herself.<\/div>\n
\nHer community supports her, the police stand by and watch her,<\/div>\n
\nAnd when she dies, there\u2019s a hue and cry, for in our country<\/div>\n
\nSelf-killing is suicide and therefore a crime \u2026<\/div>\n
\nTradition and modern laws clash and ring.<\/div>\n
\nHow should we die \u2026 how should we live \u2026<\/div>\n
\nBy not being amazed at anything \u2026<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn summer, my mango tree sprouts aubergines,<\/div>\n
\nThese days, I fail to put my trust in anything.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSMITA AGARWAL<\/b> has been publishing poetry in India and abroad for over twenty years. In 1999, she has been a writer-in-residence at the universities of Stirling (Scotland) and Kent, U.K. Her critical articles on Indian Poetry in English have been published in magazines and journals like Poetry Review, (London)<\/b> and the Journal of Commonwealth Literature (UK)<\/b>. Smita Agarwal worked for her Ph D on Sylvia Plath and is currently an editor and translator for Plath Profiles the Sylvia Plath online journal, Indiana University, USA<\/b>. Her day job is that of a Professor of English at the University of Allahabad, India. Her hobby is Indian music and her songs are available on www.beatofindia.com and You Tube.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXPLORE MORE OF INDIA WITH IDEAINDIA.COM    Publisher of E-BOOKS  E-ARTICLES AND PHOTOS ON INDIA MOFUSSIL NOTEBOOK: Poems of Small-town India eBook by SMITA AGARWAL    Like the epigraph couplet of the eighteenth century Urdu poet, Zauq, Smita Agarwal\u2019s second book of poems casts a wry and amused glance at the world around her. While poems like \u201cCatechesis\u201d, \u201cUndergraduate Indian English\u201d and \u201cMofussil Mummies\u201d explore the colonial hangover, others like \u201cI Love You\u201d reveal, with tolerant irony, the curious blend of tradition and modernity which is contemporary India. Agarwal\u2019s landscapes shift from Allahabad to Ladakh to Times Square and her <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,1,66],"tags":[1879],"class_list":["post-11970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-update","category-useful-informations","tag-update","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70825,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11970\/revisions\/70825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}