A KALEIDOSCOPE OF ART

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF ART

Words and figures, both conveying myriads of emotions is what one encounters in Latha Prem Sakhya’s second work  Nature at my Doorstep (2011).  Just like the warbling of the bird she empathies with, they soothe and disturb more than any music channel. The dexterousness of her thoughts, taking shape as poetry, sometimes prose and when there is a lull, the oil canvas sketches, speaks of the serenity, expression gives. To capture the kaleidoscopic vision of life, her words born of agony and ecstasy suffice (“Words From my Heart”).

Kanaka, Latha Sakhya’s alter ego, is a young woman, proud of her identity as a woman. Growing up in a convent, stifled by rules and regulations curbing her naturally impulsive nature, she feels hemmed in.  Groundless worries, ancient and traditional stories occupy her fertile mind. She revels in God’s potent presence. Life’s ups and downs are traversed in a knowing acceptance that God oversees all and that life awards us (“Colors of Eternity”). She speaks of contentment in the midst of large families, the love and the gaiety she enjoyed there and how empty life seems when people are not around. Kanaka, in her natural transition into middle age, speaks of the empty nest syndrome and the mother’s ‘sorrowful joy’ at the flight of the young one. Acceptance of the foibles of others and her overwhelming love towards all, which is Kanaka’s panacea, sees her sailing through life – pen, paint and canvas in hand.

Sweet, small anecdotes built around the world of animals show her interacting with them with a high level of empathy – the mischievous Tommy the cat, the bird’s self assured possession of her private space, the visiting robin, the love birds – and all are observed with affection and concern. Sakhya’s poetry vividly draws the scene which she later sketches for us. Her pencil shadow drawings reflect life as she would like it, idyllic and serene. Juxtaposed against this tranquillity are the ominous forebodings caused by the agonized hoot of the owl. The sight of the caged owl torments her soul. Throughout the collection there are conflicting images – the serene and the ruffled; solidity and change; rootedness and flux – both her poetry and her drawing show this duality.

Latha Sakhya’s oil canvas paintings show the turbulence of feeling. With her strong strokes and play of colors one can feel life and movement in the paintings.

“Spark” ironically speaks of the abandoned boy who grows up in a grey world only to be trampled and destroyed by his own hands. Life, struggling to go on, is reflected in the uprooted tree. Life has to be in the middle of humanity. The person on the deck of the schooner, lazily sailing along, longs to be back on land, reunited with his beloved.

The writer sees women in their innate strength and gentleness a combination of the tiger and the lamb of Blake – Mother Earth and Bhadrakali all rolled into one. Every woman has the wild side to her personality as can be seen in “Trapped Bird” where the protagonist, in the quiet of the night, is highly conscious of the trapped creature within her and yearns to flap her wings and soar to the limitless horizon. The cry of Mother Nature in “What am I Now” is a cry of frustration against the furies of the element and the cruel savagery of the humans.

Childhood memories also bring in the images of the tamarind tree and the swing. When the family moves to a new place she loses all that she holds dear and “Relationship” speaks of tenacious hold gone feeble. New rough terrains, streams and little mountains beckon her. In the lap of nature she feels a deep sense of serenity and calm.

Calamities and sufferings awaken the poetic harp in her. “Elizabeth” presents the painful rebirth of a Tsunami survivor. Vehement support for the downtrodden and the idealist are encapsulated in “To Irom Sharmila” and “To live freely”. Throughout there are images of both peace and turmoil. Even the placid pond, luxuriating in the thoughts of its creation, is ruffled by a sudden fall of stars . The catching of the tadpole, the children’s waiting for the mother’s arrival from work at the end of the day , the frog’s plight as summer sets in and then the rain  showers are all seen through the eyes of young Kanaka , whose joie d’ vivre is inimitable.

Love also occupies the mind of Kanaka, the protagonist.  She reads in a fairy tale romance of twin souls of platonic love. In “Did I tell You?” we encounter infatuation. But “Your love for me” speaks of the creative aspect of love to energize relationships.

With “Rocking Lap” the poet has broken free from her persona. Nostalgic memories of her story telling party, her inspirational mother and the idealistic relationship her parent shared comes crowding upon her. The pathos inherent in the acceptance of personal losses is what the last poem “In Memoriam” is all about.

 Prem Latha Sakhya’s rich tapestry of words and drawings is a well structured narrative, an amalgam of thoughts which express simple, deep feelings. It offers a short, sweet experience!!!!

Birds and Children

Birds and Children

The other day looking out of her window Kanaka saw the Mulberry bush out side her gate being shaken violently and Indran shouting, “Aye don’t break the branch”. She saw two small legs scuttling away, the mission fulfilled. She felt happy. This was what she had wanted. When she had planted the bush outside her gate in the no man’s land - a tiny space outside her wall she had answered Indran’s quizzical gaze, “This is for birds and children”. The bush had grown and started bearing lots of fruits.  She had hardly seen any child picking it. Sometimes she would pick them for herself and  kunjatta her neighbours eight year old, almost a chocolate baby, who would eat  the purple berries  fearfully as if it were poison. Today she felt fulfilled her wish had come true. Children are picking the fruits.
Her mind wafted to those good old days when she had trailed behind her Appa eating fruits she picked from the trees. She had once asked him why he left so many fruits unpicked in the trees - mango, guava, chikkoo, Njara, butter fruit, jack fruit, to list only a few. He would answer that it’s for the birds and the children. That if he did not leave fruits for the birds and the squirrels how could they survive and of course, for some children like her who are satisfied only when they pick directly from trees. She had been carrying this in her heart. And when she bought a bit of land she too planted trees that bore fruits for birds and children. By the time they started bearing fruits her child had flown far away As the present children  led a closeted life  and her only one far away from home she planted the mulberry bush for strange children who passed by her gate. They had found the mulberry bush and were picking fruits and she was surprised to see almost all the slender branches heavy with fruits. And her Appa’s words echoed in her mind “killikalkkum, Kuzhanthaikkallukum kuduthal than marathille nirayya pazham Kaikkum” (Only if you give to birds and children, trees will bear plenty of fruits).