Malabar Mind - A collection of poems by Anita Nair

Malabar Mind heralds the arrival of a major new voice in the 'meanwhile-back-to-real-life-school-of poetry'

In Malabar Mind, Anita Nair's debut collection of poems, the real and corporeal, landscapes and mindscapes are explored with a rare fluid ease. From the quirky symbol of toddy shops in Malabar - a full bottle of toddy crowned with a red hibiscus - to the stressed drone of television newscasters during war time; from the apathy of non-stick frying pans to the quiet content of cows chewing cud, Anita Nair rakes through the everyday, seizing an unusual moment. And then she turns them into metaphors that cast a glow, suffusing ordinary things with extraordinary dimensions, capturing the strength and resilience of life…

Cryptic couplets on love, an epigram on how to cope with failure, demanding extended poems about youth and sensual existence; humour, irony, lust, hope, hurt, anguish; beaches, crows, bus journeys, hospitals, just about every aspect of the human existence finds a place in this collection of poems written over a decade.