For someone who couldn’t differentiate between toor dal and gram dal, for someone who never reached the stove but only cut vegetables for her “head-cook in the kitchen,” BV Bharathi has become experienced enough to pen poems centred around cooking and food. Her book in Kannada, Kitchen Kavitegalu published by Bahuroopi, has 100 poems that talk about her links with food and her mother’s recipes which were a major point of influence on Bharathi.
Bharati has written three books, including Sasuve Tandavalu that documents her ordeal as a cancer survivor and has won many regional awards.
Kitchen Kavitegalu happened by chance for Bharathi who has written couplets now and then over the last two years. “I am surprised that I could write so many poems on my experiences in the kitchen,” she says. “My mother couldn’t believe I could connect to the kitchen in creative ways. The book is devoted to her imaginative concoctions and her fascinating take on food,” she says.
The tagline Ondishtu Oggarane Ondishtu Preetiya Hadapaaka (A bit of garnish, a bit of doting consistency), produces a smile., “I am happy I remained a kitchen assistant. This helped me observe the finer points of cooking and also gave a poetic slant to cooking,” says Bharathi who helped her mother until she was married in 1989 as a 23-year-old.
Bharathi is a foodie, although cooking has often seemed a chore to her. “Even long after marriage and kitchen work, I hadn’t developed a great taste for preparing food. Perhaps it was the monotony that made me revolt many a time. But recollecting my mother’s nonchalant comments on cooking, and the way she attempted dishes differently inspired me to couch them in poetry,” says Bharathi.
Bharathi says she used to post all her poems on Facebook and was surprised when people started sharing them quite often on social media. “When a number of imitations too started appearing, thankfully Bahuroopi came forward to publish them, as they found the chemistry of the couplets frightfully different and imaginative. And within a month of its release, it saw the second edition of print,” says Bharathi who loves travelling too.
She credits her friends Prathibha Nandakumar and Sandhyarani for motivating her to keep writing. “That is how I was able to write 100 poems in a steady pace. I am also grateful to Srujan, the artist who helped me with some wonderful illustrations that add a lighter take on food,” she says.
And what kind of imagination goes into some of her poems? “I would observe the lines on cucumber, ridge gourd and bitter gourd and wonder if they were akin to the 10 defined lines as human fingers. Or wonder if the mixed vegetables in the sambar were all friends meeting and chatting away in high degree masala,” she laughs.
Born in Kollegala town, commerce graduate Bharathi always had a passion for writing. “Many of my couplets and the poems in the book have raised the gender issue,” says Bharathi who feels that women in generations were restricted to the kitchen. “It is unfortunate that we lost so much time in expressing ourselves. If women’s literature itself was dubbed as kitchen writing for decades, why can’t our writing on the kitchen get some respect?” she asks.
