A wealth of imagery from rural Kerala fused with metaphors of a sauve urban life. Rajesh Chithira’s poems that make up the collection, ‘Tequila - Cheruthukalude Kadalunmadam’, straddle many a polarity as this. The immigrant writer’s point-of-view appears to be trained on the dissimilarities of experiences. The short, haiku-like poems are dialogues between the past and the present, the intimate and the inevitable, the lasting and the ephemeral.
Economy of words compliment the richness of imagery in the poems. Often juxtaposed again each other to create the effect of oxymoron, the vivid images compel the reader to take part in the poet’s introspective outing.
The geography of a rural landscape is etched into his poems. Memories are so inseparably entwined with the land that it becomes impossible to wean them off and see them in isolation. The paddy field is to the poet his heart inundated with her memories; he strives to cut channels of poetry in the hope of draining the memories off.
On the other hand, he is aware of the fragility of this world that he holds together in his thoughts. The boats docked on the shores of this dreamworld shroud him in a serene calmness, and yet, he knows it will only last as along as he can sustain the trance.
The arid landscape of the Gulf, where he is an immigrant, becomes a vital presence in the poems. It becomes the metaphor for the inescapable reality, and more importantly, the backdrop against which the past is played out in all its vitality. The chilling homogeneity of the cityscape and the automobiles build the subtly-stated rhetoric on modern life.
The poet’s attempts to splice together seemingly contradictory images from rural and urban settings is noteworthy. The well and the pulley are transformed into urban spaces trapped under the prying eyes of close-circuit cameras. The effect is achieved through the imaginative use of jargon associated with electronic media while describing the simple act of drawing water from a well in summer.
Rajesh has previously published the poetry collection, ‘Unmathathayude Crash Landingukal’. The poems in ‘Tequila’ are accompanied on each page with illustrations by Krishna Deepak and translations into English by Sandhya S. N. Though the translations do not match up to the original poems, it is sure to enhance readership. ‘Tequila’ is published by Payal Books.