Feeling The Way: Media Coverage

Media Coverage: 

For smiles and love

Author: Chencho Sherin Thomas | ENS 

Deeya Nayar-Nambiar’s latest book ‘Feeling the way’ is an anthology of poems that reflects her life and its simple moments

‘A little scratch, then light and bright,

‘Life’ it entered with a clear ‘if’,

The mighty hero a fighter till date,

refused to let go its valour,

My pen, my companion’.

The ‘Mighty’ hero of Deeya Nayar-Nambiar, who in her own right is a journalist, is taking her to the limelight once again as her new anthology of poems ‘Feeling the way’ all set to release on 30 May.

Deeya’s poems are simple and dewy fresh with no added flairs or embellishments as escorts. The mere sensitivity of the poet is reflected when she writes how she spared her love and money in hope of a little flower girl’s smile. “All for a smile, I said, Smiling…”. Isn’t it all for just a smile? You beam with her.

Deeya, who started her writing journey with the Oxford press in Delhi confides, “When I write reports, there are times I lose the flow and sit back to ponder on what to write. But, in the case of poems, there never occurred a time when I had to stop and wait for the next line to flow. It just gushes out”.

From lamenting with the Japanese in their loss to poking fun at the contemptible world, “Feeling the way” does not stick to self- emulation. Instead, there are instances where you find yourself in a fantastical world which you strongly identify. While delving deep into oneself, Deeya’s poems are easily relatable with everyday subjects springing in often. While sprucing up nearly grotesque imagery into visual paradise with explicit detailing, one could see the story teller hidden beneath the mask of a poet. Each poem conceals a little story in its simple verbatim, while using the least metaphors. ‘Wall’, which turns dull with time, shadow, which follows her around like an angel and breathtaking beauty of nature are all turned into striking characters that think and talk like human replicas. Nonetheless, the poet adamantly tries to stick to her comfort zone that is herself and her surroundings.

The pair sparingly different, My man and I’. Hitherto, between sparks of fury and stoic silences they merge the differences and concede to love, her man and her. Within the husband and wife lies the solution. There begins the love that lasts a lifetime even between sparingly different couples, divulges Deeya in twelve petite yet stunning lines in the poem ‘Us’. In a world where debates are sparring to prove marriage as an outdated institution, Deeya’s lines lead us to that precious journey which turns ‘I’ into ‘Us, while conceding to each other.

Deeya’s inclination to writing started when she was still in her school uniforms. Her thoughts, feelings and emotions surged out in little poems while she hid it in her little world of words. Today, a Mass Communication teacher and freelance journalist, Deeya has three published works in her credit with the first book ‘Me, my friend’ published in the year 2009. Deeya who did her schooling from ‘Kendriya Vidyalaya’ in different states of India is quite adept in Hindi and her ‘Aisa Kyon?’ published in 2012 is written in Hindi.

“Though I can speak very well in Malayalam, I can’t write it. Due to my father’s occupation in the Indian Postal Service, which transferred him often to various states of India, I have got to experience various cultures and tradition and it has helped me much in developing my own writing style,” says Deeya.

The fifty poems in ‘Feeling the way’ demonstrate the empathy and genuineness the poet feels towards the downtrodden. It is evident that Deeya likes to see her world in a different light, a pungent sense of responsibility overpowers her poems and she drowns deep in its indulgences.

The courageous journey of Japan over the years resonates in 4 poems “Calm’, ‘Prayers’, ‘Alas!’ and ‘Rising’, while making the reader touch a chord with the ‘land of the rising sun’. In Deeya’s poems you may not witness pretences instead her soliloquies that is her poems reflect an honesty and pureness that may touch your soul.

Copyright © 2012 The New Indian Express. All rights reserved.