Vijila Chirappad | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 or 1981 (age 42–43) Kozhikode, Kerala, India |
Occupation | Poet |
Language | Malayalam |
Vijila Chirappad (born 1980 or 1981) [1] is an Indian Dalit poet who writes in Malayalam. [2]
Born in Kozhikode, Kerala, Chirappad's poems speak of the experience of living life as a Dalit woman. [3] Her poetry explores how the double burden of gender and caste shapes the lives and struggles of Dalit women in Kerala in distinct ways than women of dominant castes. [4] [5] [6] [7] Her work also discusses how, despite Kerala's communist history, casteism pervades everyday life there. [3]
In our home
There is no TV
No fridge
Neither mixer
Nor grinder
No LPG
Not even an iron-box.
Yet my mother knew
How to operate these
Much before I did.
Because
Like in Madhavikutty’s stories
And the novels of MT
She is Janu-
The servant.— She Who Flew Afore, Vijila Chirappad
Chirappad's work includes three collections of poetry in Malayalam: Adukala Illathaa Veedu (A Home without a Kitchen, 2006), Amma Oru Kalpanika Kavitha Alla (Mother is not a Poetic Figment of our Imagination, 2009), [8] and Pakarthi Ezhuthu (Copied Notes, 2015). [9] [6] Her poems "A Place for Me", "Can't Grow My Nails" and "The Autobiography of a Bitch" have also been included in the 2012 Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing. [10]
chandrika chechi of the Wasteland
talks
about the homes one enters
only through the back door.
of the flats
where one enters
through the front door —
the ones with the porch light on.
returning daily from the marketplace
both the fish and she share
the same path —
the one through the back door.
entering through the very same route,
while hearing the television
blare the pledge aloud on August 15 —
all Indians are my brothers and sisters.— Wasteland, Virila Chirappad
Chirappad has participated in the Kerala Literature festival [11] and also in the prestigious Hay Festival of Literature and Arts as part of an event on Dalit Poetry in Malayalam. [12]
Vijila Chirappad | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 or 1981 (age 42–43) Kozhikode, Kerala, India |
Occupation | Poet |
Language | Malayalam |
Vijila Chirappad (born 1980 or 1981) [1] is an Indian Dalit poet who writes in Malayalam. [2]
Born in Kozhikode, Kerala, Chirappad's poems speak of the experience of living life as a Dalit woman. [3] Her poetry explores how the double burden of gender and caste shapes the lives and struggles of Dalit women in Kerala in distinct ways than women of dominant castes. [4] [5] [6] [7] Her work also discusses how, despite Kerala's communist history, casteism pervades everyday life there. [3]
In our home
There is no TV
No fridge
Neither mixer
Nor grinder
No LPG
Not even an iron-box.
Yet my mother knew
How to operate these
Much before I did.
Because
Like in Madhavikutty’s stories
And the novels of MT
She is Janu-
The servant.— She Who Flew Afore, Vijila Chirappad
Chirappad's work includes three collections of poetry in Malayalam: Adukala Illathaa Veedu (A Home without a Kitchen, 2006), Amma Oru Kalpanika Kavitha Alla (Mother is not a Poetic Figment of our Imagination, 2009), [8] and Pakarthi Ezhuthu (Copied Notes, 2015). [9] [6] Her poems "A Place for Me", "Can't Grow My Nails" and "The Autobiography of a Bitch" have also been included in the 2012 Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing. [10]
chandrika chechi of the Wasteland
talks
about the homes one enters
only through the back door.
of the flats
where one enters
through the front door —
the ones with the porch light on.
returning daily from the marketplace
both the fish and she share
the same path —
the one through the back door.
entering through the very same route,
while hearing the television
blare the pledge aloud on August 15 —
all Indians are my brothers and sisters.— Wasteland, Virila Chirappad
Chirappad has participated in the Kerala Literature festival [11] and also in the prestigious Hay Festival of Literature and Arts as part of an event on Dalit Poetry in Malayalam. [12]