Won Indian Ruminations Literary Award – Malayalam Poetry 2011
‘Poems are born unknowingly in a mysterious moment’ is the quote on his writings by the poet Rajesh Chithira. ‘Unmathathakalude Crash Landingukal’ his first anthology is a nice collection of poems. The poems of this collection land on the reader’s heart with myriad pictures drawn in marvellous imagery. Those diction of the poems in the book touches the vibrant strings of love and life. It takes certain talent to create poetic verse that truly evokes a beautiful image and feeling. Rajesh Chithira has demonstrated his abundant creative ability in his poems. The themes in poems give a nostalgic feel of our land, our customs and our habits which are centuries old. His writing style stands unique among the post modern poets. His poetry collection, ‘Unmathathakalude Crash Landingukal’ has been awarded Indian Ruminations Literary Award for best Malayalam Poetry for the year 2011.
Many poems in this collection depict the poet’s constant conversation with nature. A philosophical-creative link is evident in most of his poems. He portrays his insights through his magnificent word-image. In the poem ‘Ulipechu’ the poet succeeds in delineating a curious mind of a villager through subtle irony and humour. It projects the poet’s concern towards nature and beauty. Through a rustic representation, he brilliantly evokes the degrading nature as well as the fading traditional occupations in connection with it.
It is to be appreciated that he pictures the warm shades of love in his poems like, ‘Orma kalapangal’, ‘Saakshathkaram’, ‘Nishabdathayude akhoshangal’, ‘Akashathinum bhoomikkumidayil’. He creates a fascinating galaxy where only altruistic love remains. His words are successful enough to express the pain in love too. In one of his short poem ‘love’ he says
Even with riven breast and nose
You are pretty! dear Shoorpanakha..
Except a bruised heart
Whatelse will remain
When love recedes.
Rajesh is an expert in the art of chiseling his poems. There are many love poems in the collection where the poet succeeded in portraying ideas in a subtle manner.
Memory
May be…
As I stand in the typhoon
Of your memories,
I never had felt the burn of isolation
As the tree in the hillside
Forsake the dew drops on its leaves
I fail to flounce you dear
off my memories
‘Ecosystethile Prapidiyanmar’ is a beautiful poem in the anthology which bagged him Sauhridham Poetry Award 2010. The poem gives a nude picture where philosophies mismatch when it corners with life. The poet expresses the helplessness of life in his words beautifully. The poem ”Aakasmikathakalude Noolpalam’ defines life’s experiences as a blink of incidence right amidst the start and the reach while travelling a thread bridge with indefinite depth and fall.
Malayalam poetry in the post modern era imprints a style without any systematic rules of poetry. It is widely criticized too on many of its aspects, on its shallowness, cliché of words and so on . But when we read Rajesh Chithira, we find it very difficult to accord with the earlier criticism. He develops an approach breaking the conventional formats and crash-lands with a specific style of his own enriched by his creative skill and an inborn natural talent.
The anthology, published by Saikathom Books bring in the readers, fascinating moments of nature, thoughts and life experiences. No doubt, ‘Unmathathakalude Crash landingukal’ will poetically crash land the readers hearts.
Here is a translation of one of his beautiful poems, ‘iruttu’.
Darkness – Rajesh Chithira
As the days’ bed of arrows
Barely breed, the daytime
I detain to the sleepless sleeps
And dark seems a fascinating wish
The dark of the dusk
Whilst, you went apart
As a somnambulist
My solitude conquer the boughs
In search of dark’s nest
In the pate of the tree
Up in the sky,
Moon, the cheerful lover
Amid his beloved clouds
Smile on the searching eyes
Among the surfing clouds
Yet another dawn of a day
and the sky, a waveless sea
Bounded…
On the branchless trees
The blossom of stars with wide open eyes
Glitter in the pace of the merry clouds
Beneath,
the land, alike the sky…
In between the two skies…
I, a yacht forlorn wind…
As a trackless needle…
Which lamp might entice me,
ogling its eye of dark?
Which eclipse might forsake me,
in the land of dark?
What a pleasure to find someone who identifies the isuess so clearly