ABOUT
Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009),
popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and
married name Kamala Das, was an Indian poet in English as well
as an author in Malayalam from Kerala, India. Her popularity in
Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography,
while her oeuvre (works) in English, written under the name
Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography.
She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics
including women's issues, child care, politics among others etc.
Her liberal treatment of female sexuality, marked her as
an iconoclast in popular culture of her generation. On 31 May
2009 , aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune.
Early life
Kamala Das was born in Punnayurkulam, Ponnani taluk, Malabar
District, British India (present-day Thrissur district, Kerala, India)
on 31 March 1934, to V. M. Nair, a managing editor of the widely
circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalapat Balamani
Amma, a renowned Malayali poet.
She spent her childhood between Calcutta, where her father was
employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company
that sold Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles, and
the Nalapat ancestral home in Punnayurkulam.
Like her mother Balamani Amma, Kamala Das also excelled in
writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the
influence of her great uncle, Nalapat Narayana Menon, a
prominent writer
At the age of 15, she married bank officer Madhav Das, who
encouraged her writing interests, and she started writing and
publishing both in English and in Malayalam. Calcutta in the
1960s was a tumultuous time for the arts, and Kamala Das was
one of the many voices that came up and started appearing in cult
anthologies along with a generation of Indian English
poets. English was the language she chose for all six of her
published poetry collections.
Literary career
She was noted for her many Malayalam short stories as well as
many poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated
columnist. She once claimed that "poetry does not sell in this
country [India]",but her forthright columns, which sounded off on
everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were
popular.
Kamala Das' first book of poetry, Summer in Calcutta was a
breath of fresh air in Indian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of
love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms Das
abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat
sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a
time when Indian poets were still governed by "19th-century
diction, sentiment and romanticised love." Her second book of
poetry, The Descendants was even more explicit, urging women
to:
Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers ..." – The Looking Glass
Personal life
Kamala married Madhav Das at the age of 15. The couple had
three sons – M D Nalapat, Chinen Das and Jayasurya Das. Her
husband predeceased her in 1992, after 43 years of
marriage. Madhav Das Nalapat, her eldest son, is married to
Princess Thiruvathira Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi (daughter of
Princess Pooyam Thirunal Gouri Parvati Bayi and Sri Chembrol
Raja Raja Varma Avargal) from the Travancore Royal House. He
holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and is a Professor
of geopolitics at the Manipal University. He had been a resident
editor of The Times of India. Kamala Surayya converted to Islam
in 1999 and announced that she planned to marry her Muslim
lover, but she never remarried.
On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, after a
long battle with pneumonia. Her body was flown to her home state
of Kerala. She was interred at the Palayam Juma
Masjid at Thiruvananthapuram with full state honour.
Politics
Though never politically active before, she launched a national
political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming at the promotion of
secularism and providing asylum to orphaned mothers. In 1984
she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections.
Conversion to Islam
She was born in a conservative Hindu Nair (Nalapat) family
having royal ancestry. She converted to Islam on December 11,
1999, at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya.
Legacy
On 1 February 2018, Google Doodle by artist Manjit Thapp
celebrates the work she left behind, which provides a window into
the world of an engrossing woman.
A biopic on her titled Aami directed by Kamal, released on 9
February 2018.
Awards and other recognitions
Kamala Das has received many awards for her literary
contribution, including:
1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize
1968: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story – Thanuppu
1984: Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature
1985: Kendra Sahitya Academy Award (English) – Collected
Poems
1988: Kerala State Film Award for Best Story
1997: Vayalar Award – Neermathalam Pootha Kalam
1998: Asian Poetry Prize
2006: Honorary D.Litt by University of Calicut
2006: Muttathu Varkey Award
2002: Ezhuthachan Award
Books
English
Novel
1976: Alphabet of Lust
Autobiography
1976: My Story
Short stories
1977: A Doll for the Child Prostitute
1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories
Poetry
1964: The Sirens
1965: Summer in Calcutta
1967: The Descendants
1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems
1977: The Stranger Time
1979: Tonight, This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy)
1984: Collected Poems
1985: The Anamalai Poems
1997: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing
1999: My Mother at Sixty-six
2001: Yaa Allah
Punishment in the kindergarten
Malayalam
1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories)
1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories)
1968: Thanuppu (short story)
1973: Ente Katha (autobiography)
1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (childhood memories)
1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (novel)
1990: Palayan (novel)
1991: Neypayasam (short story)
1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel)
1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel)
1996: Kadal Mayooram (short novel)
1996: Rohini (short novel)
1996: Rathriyude Padavinyasam (short novel)
1996: Aattukattil (short novel)
1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories)
1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories)
2005: Chandana Marangal (novel)
2005: Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)
2005: Vandikkalakal (novel)
2019 : Ottayadi pathayum vishadam pookkunna marangalum
MY OPINION
My opinion about her is that Kamala Das makes her own life, her
personal emotional experiences, disillusionment and frustrations
the center of her poetry. As a confessional poet she depicts with
phenomenal frankness the wrongs, exploitation, oppression and
humiliation that she endured/faced in the male dominated society.
Sexual humiliation and exploitation is one of the main subjects of
her writings. Her poems beautifully describe how she fails to
incorporate/blend the inner and the outer, the body and the soul.
Kamala Das frankly writes about love, sex, failures, frustrations,
marital relations, extramarital sex, emotional sterility etc. She is
considered one of the first Indo-English poets who adopted the
method of confessionalism in her poetry.
