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Life, sweet and sour
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Noted Malayalam writer-poet K. Satchidanandan talks about his love for sweet dishes and compassion for both human and animal species
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Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
On a poetic note K. Satchidanandan at Rajdhani restaurant in New Delhi’s Connaught Place
“Thousands of poets wrote poetry
And were forgotten
Only one was remembered
I would rather be forgotten
With thousands of companions
Than be the lone immortal”
-- K. Satchidanandan
A platter full of colourful Gujarati snacks like kachori, pakora, chaat papdi, methi pudina khakra is definitely appetising but if you are sharing it with the famous Malayali writer-poet K. Satchidanandan, the meal is like a poetic journey. Regarded
as one of the pioneers in Malayalam new poetry, Delhi-based Satchi is a writer and critic of national repute.
Relaxing following a tight schedule at the conference of Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature and managing Katha’s imprint, Katha India Library, Satchi is at Rajdhani restaurant at New Delhi’s Connaught Place, which has a mix of Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisine, just like Satchi’s poems that have a hint of humour, satire and empathy.
Satchi loves ‘sweet-sour-salty’ food and helps himself to dahi vada. Rajdhani is famous for its thali, and before we start talking, a thali comprising four kinds of vegetables, dal, puris, bundi raita, puranpoli, papad, theplas, rotlas, chapatis, biscuit bhakris, dhokla, papad and dahi is spread in front of us. It’s quite scrumptious to see so many dishes being poured into the plate with accuracy. The servers generously topple butter-ghee on your bajra roti.
Sweet is good
Nibbling a delicate jaggery-stuffed roti, Satchi says that he is quite fond of food and that too sweet. He says, “Thoda meetha is good”. In fact, he loves to experiment whenever he is travelling. “I am quite fond of chocolates and continental food, Mexican being my favourite. It has a perfect combination of chicken marinated in chocolate.” He also enjoys Persian food, fish preparations in India and food cooked in honey.
Penning poetry since his childhood, unlike food, Satchi has trouble choosing his favourite poem. “It is always difficult to choose. Some poems dear to me are my poems on the language Malayalam bearing that title, my poems on my predecessors like ‘Kumaran Asan’, ‘Vailoppilly’ and ‘Edassery’, and poems that have appealed to readers and listeners across countries and languages like ‘Stammer’, ‘How To Go To the Tao Temple’, ‘Cactus’, and ‘Gandhi’.”
Biting a mirchi ka pakoda, Satchi says he is also fond of spices and spicy food. As part of his series on Kerala, Satchi has composed poems on spices like pepper, cardamom and on turmeric but not on food. “Maybe I can write only on hunger and not food! I fear unless I am truly moved, I cannot write too. I am still looking for one.”
Through his poems Satchi has not only entered the souls of suffering men, women and children, but animals, trees and stones as well. He says, “I have a series of poems on animals, even insects. I have seen the god of the grasshopper leaping up on thin legs and heard the snail advising the speed-mad world to go slow, listened to the cries of creepers and flowers, and the screams of trees being felled.”
He says, “If you have seen the film, Honey, I shrunk the Kids you may learn with what fear and anguish the little animals and insects look at the world that threatens them every minute, a little pool on the rain-drenched courtyard, a raised foot, a breeze…anything can scare them.”
Refusing a second helping, Satchi says poems are like dishes whipped and tossed up with a lot of understanding, empathy, and experience. Otherwise, how would he have created poems like ‘Stammer’, ‘The Razing of Babri Masjid’, ‘The Great Wall of China’, ‘The Bhopal Gas Tragedy’, ‘The Hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa’, ‘The Pokhran Nuclear Test’ and so on.
Sipping the sweet cardamom kesar tea, Satchi says, “We seldom think of the sources of our joy that might cause great suffering to others. Buddha’s teachings have appealed to me mostly for their compassion and adherence to non-violence.” He adds, “I have always taken sides with the victims and looked at history and life from below.”
AMRITA TALWAR
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