A poetry book that seeks answers to questions that are central to feminism

Employing irony, humour and rhetoric, they seek answers to questions that are central to feminism today. They also attempt to understand what it means to be human and are a judicious mix of dark and light themes. 

“The majority of the poems in the book describe the intense, unspeakable pain women suffer due to male chauvinistic ideas prevalent in society and the suppression of their ‘self’ as a result. The poems speak about the lives of women who hit rock bottom and yet find it in themselves to rise with anger and determination, women who manage to reinvent themselves. A few poems are about other kinds of hierarchies and prejudices. Some poems reflect on the relationship between parent and child,” says Vatsala. 

Known for their feminist stance, her works have been published by various literary magazines. We ask the author, her inspiration to write the poems and she says, “I am a 75-year-old woman who was born into a somewhat conservative south Indian middle-class family. This fact alone will suffice to indicate to most Indians the sort of upbringing I must have had. To be explicit – No play, not many windows left open for exposure to the larger world, lots of fears planted in the mind, the unshakable belief that marriage and raising children is the be all and end all for all women. My upbringing had eroded my self-esteem. And like most women, I thought that my pain was ‘Vatsala’s’ pain alone. And so I was killing myself in instalments. But once I was exposed to the basic principles of feminism through some friends and after my participation in an all India women’s conference, I realised that my pain was only a small part of the huge pain all women faced. My unhappiness turned to social anger and from this, my poems were born.” 

Lyrical and powerful at the same time, the poet has drawn on the pain she had experienced in her life. “To vividly describe, in a more general way, it’s a woman’s pain.” Though there isn’t much feminist poetry in Tamil, at least for a few more generations to come, only women can write truly feminist poetry. 

Vatsala opines, “First of all, there is a dearth of women poets, for the same obvious reason as there is a dearth of women scientists, women engineers, etc. My title poem talks about this. Secondly, not just men, women too have been brainwashed and are often carriers of male chauvinistic ideas. So, many people associate the word feminism with a belief system that is anti-men. They misinterpret feminism. The world needs more women poets and more women who can understand and accept feminism. Only then can we expect to have more feminist women poets,” she remarks.