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BOOKS
AUTHORSPEAK
NEERADA SURESH
Reedy
Witness
In
today's world of fiction, it would take guts and gumption to publish a
book on poetry. But Neerada Suresh, succumbing to the rhythm in her head,
has done it twice. First with Bonsais, a book of poems she published five
years ago, and now with Reeds in the Wind, a collection of 55 poems. Suresh
insists she is not the usual "I-am-an-intellectual" brand of
writer. A mother of two, principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gurgaon, and
a compulsive traveller, she encounters "moments to record" every
day that the poet in her cannot ignore. She jots down "fleeting,
ordinary moments to light up the moments of another day". "It's
like sealing your thoughts in a bottle and preserving for later use. It's
very powerful," she says.
 Art,
artefacts and visitors from all over the world crowd her plush home in
Delhi's verdant Asiad Village colony. Her appreciation of "people-oriented
art" is apparent in the figurative paintings of men, women and lovers
that adorn her walls. It is a sentiment she echoes in her poems. "I
like examining man-woman relationships, the chemistry between lovers,
and showing it as it is." For this, she takes "two steps back"
to play the part of an unassuming witness. In Reeds, there are no rules
in her. No deliberate rhyming or blank verses. "Poetry is something
that brews in me as I eat, cook, walk. Once the brew is done, I sit down
to write."
Much of the observations in the new book have
stemmed from her many lonely travels to Israel, while on a trip to read
a paper on teachers' training in Jerusalem and Egypt. And Kerala, where
she embarked upon her poetic journey at the age of 12, when she scribbled
lines on nature and death. "It was as though I had a spilt personality.
I was both a happy and serious child." Now in Delhi, she savours
the city for the sense of anonymity it provides. "It's a city of
pretences, but it's hilarious if you start observing people around you."
Suresh has also done translations for Katha.
She's not a feminist, she confesses, but hates being branded as a "woman
writer". "It's the worst gender offence. Ever heard of men writers?"
She has a point.
—Methil Renuka
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