Mishti's reaction on Kamala Suraiyya's poem.

16th May 2016
3:00 PM

Mishti came back from school and told all the stories of the day and as a ritual I had to tell mine too.
I asked her if she would like to hear about the poetess of India from the article that we did today on TBI- Hindi.

Mishti : I know Mamma ...it's Rabindranath Tagore.

Me : That's only one... we have many..

Mishti : okay tell me..

This was the article - http://hindi.thebetterindia.com/1854/women-poets-india-list-poetry/

The first name was Kamala Suraiyya and I started reciting her poem...

“Don’t write in English,they said,
English is Not your mother-tongue.

Why not leave Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you?

Why not let me speak inAny language I like?

The language I speak,Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses

All mine, mine alone.”
–  from An Introduction, Kamala Das.

Mishti - Why did people ask her not to write in English?

Me- Because her mother tongue was Malayalam.

After 10 minutes of explanation on what Malayalam is or why one was supposed to write in her/his own mother tongue...

Mishti : Ya we can write in any language we like... like you are Bengali but you write in English and Hindi :)