Myths Rewrite History

 Mandalas of Time , Malashri Lal, Hawakal Publishers Private Limited ; New Delhi, 2023, INR 500 (Hardback)ISBN: 978-81-960065-7-0

Mandalas of Time is a collection of seventy-five enchanting poems in  different moods and perspectives.  We are introduced to a collage of themes and subjects that fascinate, move and inspire us for a long time. There are poems which are a sensuous treat, redolent with  colours, fragrances   and music — the peacock’s feathers ‘blue, tinged in green,’ the first flush of dawn, carnation petals on the doorstep, abundant pansies, dahlias, mango blossoms and Easter lilies thriving in mellow fruitfulness.

The heat-defying Amaltas

Watches over troubled strangers —

Scarves wrapped around their head,

Umbrellas unfurled

Souls shrivelled more than the summer warrants. (‘Amaltas in Summer’)

“Life’s renewal is a beautiful certainty’ says  former professor of English, Malashri Lal, who is a widely travelled soul maker.   Far away from her home town, the pink city of Jaipur, her ancestral families were in Calcutta and Shantiniketan, some members of which assisted Rabindranath Tagore in the  formative years of Visva-Bharati. The legacy stays in her beliefs:

I learnt from Gurudev                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Emotions have no fixed language

The mind has no physical limits

Music resounds in the open sky

Dance is the joy of a free spirit anywhere.

A good poem is a movement in life; and a “good” poem will always try to reach the condition of music. Plainly speaking, it takes you from the level you are in to a higher plane, with melody and harmony:

This evening,

Goddess Lakshmi recalls

Those who are absent

By distance and time

Love and helplessness

Death and sickness. (‘Diwali with Goddess Lakshmi’)

Some poems are rooted in the world of being and feeling, conjuring up senses and sensibilities. Can Malashri’s eco-poetry drive climate action? In the age of mutual coexistence between human beings  and nature, the earth anthem is very important. There is an awareness of today’s threat of climate change. Malashri is a serious activist, as for instance, in ‘Sita’s Pankha’, emphasizing the bond with the earth—

I sit at my meal,

The Pankha I give to my lord Rama

Gently he waves it over my thaali

Of banana leaf and forest fare,

Nature’s plenitude,

Our household, one with my Mother Earth.

Another enchanting  poem is ‘Sita’s Rasoi’

Maternity calls

for justice,

no favourite child…

Food it is that holds us humans together.

Profound respect is offered to great personages such as Rabindranath  Tagore, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Mahatma Gandhi,  and educators like Maharani Gayatri Devi. The poet Gulzar’s love of library shelves filled with books catches the  poet’s attention, reminding us of another time and place.

Characters from the great Indian epics occur often   in this book, described subtly and poignantly. The  myths stand out as cultural tropes for the celebration of selfhood and dignity. Myths rewrite the history of the land and its people. I like Malashri Lal’s precision in choosing  images and connecting them with ancient legends. Some poems in this collection are rooted in the world of being and feeling, conjuring up sensibilities, values and ethical norms. These rich poems give us a sense of running, crossing river beds of Time and ultimately inhabiting a landscape of poetry:

My grandmother’s portrait

Merges with mine,

Today we’ve crossed a century

To share wrinkles of fatigue. (‘Family Portrait’)

Malashri Lal’s use of natural imagery is never exotic but it is poignant.  She says,

More than skin and colour

I have inherited her joyful search

For infinity.

As an ardent, confident feminist, Malashri Lal introduces news stories about women who, as families of ‘migrant workers’, were leaving Delhi during the pandemic.

Leave the slum or pay the rent

Who cares if she is pregnant,

Get out — go anywhere. (‘Ladies Special’)

Malashri scans many cities. In her  radiant faith  Godhuli is vibrant in Delhi and  ‘Howrah Bridge’ is a cantilever structure  that comments on Calcutta.

Under the Howrah Bridge,

The boatman steers through muddy waters

Wondering at the undercarriage of cars and trams and trucks

That have crossed beyond his era.

Malashri Lal’s poems offer a kind of cleansing. Life’s fairy story can discover good in evil and light in the deepest darkness. This collection recreates the delicate fragrance of life, faithfully. We walk through it. This book is filled with symbols of silence, death, sickness, indifference, loneliness, loss,  evening, night , but the poet ironically   names the collection “Mandalas”   for a contrasting effect between  mutability  and    creative fancy. There are poems that are a sensuous delight, full of  desire  for life’s potential fulfillment; these are balanced by poems that accept pain and suffering. Nature remains a silent witness. To mention a few, the first flush of dawn, bougainvillea, red hibiscus, champa,  mango blossoms and Easter lilies thriving in the garden of  an old house. The title of the collection celebrates the unfaltering spirit of the poet. For Malashri Lal, hope gives the energy for rejuvenation. Her ‘Mandalas’ symbolize an incessant survival, living and longing that negates  any dark despair.

 Mandalas of Time is the unbound voice of a mapmaker in words.  The souvenirs of sensations experienced with some mesmerizing poems can never die out. As we reach the last section, we are left yearning for more. Mandalas of Time will never be forgotten, as it will always reinforce youth and fearlessness.

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