Arundhathi Subramaniam is the author of 15 books of poetry and prose. Her recent work includes the poetry collection The Gallery of Upside Down Women and the book of essays, Women Who Wear Only Themselves. She is the winner of several honours, including the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Poetry, the Il Ceppo Prize in Italy, the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award and the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize for Poetry
True longing alchemises us. As the experience of incompleteness eats into our innards, it births us, gradually, into a new wholeness. And one day, it would seem, we no longer see any conflict between earth and sky, now and forever. The divide has been healed. We are home. Elsewhere is right here.
The Bhakti poetry is not dewy-eyed infatuation. This is a scorching, all-consuming desire that cauterises, purifies and eventually illuminates every crevice of human consciousness.
Arundhathi Subramaniam draws a parallel between the present age of political bhakts and their blind devotion to their leader, and poets of an era long gone by whose devotion to God was not blind
From soft-focus romance to lament and critique, there’s a poem about the rain for every mood.
How will the world end? With a whimper, as Eliot predicted? Or in a yawn, as Pope said it would.
Bhakti is no juvenile love affair. The word has been used to describe blind faith to a political regime, writes cultural curator, Arundhathi Subramanium
Signup for Outlook and get curated content to your inbox everyday.