Poet, novelist, short story writer and columnist — late Kamala Das' creative calling straddled all of these. Verse or prose, her acerbic style cut through many emotions of a lonely heart. The acclaimed poet-author from Kerala, also known as Madhavikutty, even laid bare her inner world in My Story , setting a benchmark for writing with candour.
Jayasurya Das, her youngest son, says perhaps it was her genuine interest in human beings that made her pen powerful. He says his mother scribbled till the end and continued to write poems, her first love.
Das' last book, The Kept Woman and Other Stories — published by Om Books, came much after she passed away in Pune.
Jayasurya talks about the book that features translation of her short stories, and on Kamala as mother. He also points out, “I think it is unfortunate that a writer like her, who even won a nomination for the Nobel, was never honoured with a Padma award or the Jnanpith. I find this very strange, maybe it was because of her outspokenness.
How involved was Das in the publishing ofThe Kept Woman and Other Stories?
She was quite involved in it… she personally selected the stories that were to go to print.
She had a unique style of writing prose — very economic with words, the sentences were often cryptic.
Prose was more Madhavikutty and not Kamala Das, which probably says it all. She was more of a poet but she always treated poetry and prose differently. In my opinion, poetry she lived, prose was her creative instinct.
Loneliness was all pervading in her writings. The stark honesty inMy Storychanged the way we looked at autobiographies. Then we see stories such asIqbalin her last book talking about a gay. She also wrote stories about Tamils in Sri Lanka and anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. How do you look at these salient features of her works? Did she ever discuss it with you?
We did discuss her work once in a while but I must confess she was always amma for me more than anything else and still is. Each of her work had a unique flavour which probably was a heady concoction of her love, her passion for creativity and for everyone around her. Her unique ability to weave a story came from her genuine interest in human beings and her incessant love. Her autobiography, probably the boldest of her work, achieved the commercial success that she needed at that point of time and probably got her all the adulation that she deserved for her poetry more than anything else. Poetry doesn't sell, she always said. It's still the same.
How was she as a mother?
She had a tenderness about her that was unique, immense love and concern for her children and their families.
Is there any unpublished work of hers?
A few scribbles and poems are there, I am trying to collate them. A lot of her columns that haven't been brought out as books are there too, I am trying hard to get them from various quarters but haven't had much luck yet.
Any plan for the house she stayed in?
In Pune (where she passed away), she lived in a rented apartment. There is, however, a memorial being built at our ancestral village Punnayurkulam (near Guruvayur temple) and this is being coordinated by Sahitya Akademi. She donated the last piece of land that she owned to the Akademi, a few months before she passed away.
