THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Grey is a metaphor in Meera Nair’s poems, finding resonance in ideas like subtext and shadow puppetry. The passage of time and its unassailable ability to turn the most fiery black a self-doubting grey is perhaps at the core of her debut collection of poems,’Grey - Born When Black Invaded White’. A collage of the most engaging kind, her poetry reflects the many identities straddled by the women of her generation. The book, published by Authorspress, is in the shortlist for Muse India - Satish Verma Young Writer Award.
The woman in Meera’s poems revels in a self-deprecating wittiness, celebrating the tantalising charisma of all that evades definition in her. Even while grappling with the conflict between her desires and the roles thrust on her by the society, she is not one to be dazed by them. Each knot of this entangled identities thus becomes a song of ecstasy.
The poem ‘In Between’ is pensive in its tone -
No longer naive
Caught between growing children
And aging parents
Not yet hiding within bitter armour
Smug in foolish wisdom
Or grabbing at every passing moment
In shameless greed
No, not yet old......
Wanting the impossible
Knowing it is impossible
Middle Aged.
On the other hand,
There are also times when she is weighed down by the rhapsody of her own songs. And the poets confesses that in those moments she feels ‘like the Velichappad/After the trance/Who lies unmoving on the ground/The rivulets of blood from his self flagellation .................Drained/Defeated/Dumb.
This self flagellation is to make its appearance in the poems on and off, more an afterthought than a definitive idea. She sees herself as the callous Indian society that waxes eloquent about India’s daughter who was ravaged on the streets and then switches the TV channel to watch ‘Sheila ki Jawani’. She is the ‘besotted’ Radha and each of the unnamed Gopika or the ‘five times pawned’ Panchali - women who smugly allowed the patriarchal society to make archetypes of them. With her re-reading of these mythological women characters, she builds a critique of the construction of womanhood. It gains potency when read alongside the voice of protest that ring loud and clear in poems like ‘Woman’.
Meera’s career as a media professional has also informed her writing, lending it a third person perspective which is at once detached and immensely enabling. Unexpected endings, often with a tinge of drama evocative of O Henry-style short stories, marks her poetry. In fact, it is in the ordinary and the everyday that she finds moments of poetic singularity. The collection has 50 poems.