The scent of a woman (writer)

The scent of a woman (writer)
M Mukundan

Female fiction writers have taken over the subcontinent of the imagination. Woman is the word. We said so even long ago -- at the time of Lord Shiva to be precise. We said so because the Word is the world. It was His spouse who held together His world, so she was invariably the world.

But thereafter we reduced woman to an amputated word, a mere adjective crafted by gender-biased grammarians to qualify and quantify man's exploits. That was nothing short of being horrendously discourteous and unfair to woman -- the venerated mother, the amorous spouse and the romanticised beloved.

And now? Ah, now she is again the word. More importantly, she is ruling the world. At least that is the impression an array of celebrated women, from Arundhati Roy and Jayashree Mishra to Jhumpa Lahiri, are thrusting upon us.Globalisation, naturally, has not benefitted the leftists. It has rendered them ideologically poorer but, fortunately for them, materially enriched, with their Cielos and Santros and cellphones. But clearly it is women who have gained the most.

In Kerala, globalisation and its market chemistry has begun to play havoc with periodicals publishing poetry. Until now, they fared well on the strength of their aesthetic flourishes or ideological largesse. Poetry was placed on the highest pedestal. Now it seems that these periodicals can survive only if they are market savvy.

Interestingly, the market has a crush on woman, but not on poetry. Poetry has no takers any more. As a result, the old custom of regularly publishing poetry in these journals fell into disuse. Nobody was inclined to read poems any more, except the works of some iconic poet or other. Publishers were therefore in a dilemma over whether to publish poetry or not.

Then came a brilliant idea. Why not publish poems written by young and good-looking women with their photos of course in colour printed alongside? It worked. Seeing the photos of the poetesses, readers went back to their old habit of reading verse. Consequently, an array of young poetesses emerged on the literary scene. The truth is that what we are reading is not poetry but the photographs of the poetesses. But what is wrong with that if the ancient cult of relishing poetry can be revived as a result?

Jean-Paul Sartre had claimed that a woman's posterior does not belong her as it is perpetually exposed to the world. And now J.M. Coetzee asserts that woman does not own herself because beauty does not own itself. Whatever be the absolute truth, the author's photographs and names do matter a great deal. Who can resist a musical name like Radhika Jha? Admittedly, I bought Smell not expecting it to be a soul-stirring novel. I bought the book for the name of the author and for the photo on the cover. (Yet I enjoyed reading some of its beautifully crafted pages.)

If you draw a list of today's most successful Indian writers of fiction in English, it begins with Arundhati Roy, meanders through Shobha De, Geeta Hariharan, Manju Kapur, Manjula Padmanabhan, Radhika Jha, Jayashree Mishra, Anita Nair, Kaveri Nambeesan, ending with Jhumpa Lahiri. Why do all the crowned writers of fiction belong to the fair sex? Yes, there may be a Pankaj Mishra or a Raj Kamal Jha, but they are ultimately just a spoonful of guava sauce added to the rich feast of female tagliatelle, aren't they?Caste, religion and male politics had reduced woman into a societal residue.

Thanks to female writers, she has been salvaged in large measure. This is something even the most dedicated reformists and hot-blooded revolutionaries could not achieve.

So no more Auschwitz for female foetuses. No more bride burning, either. To have a girl child is a boon. She will grow up intelligent and beautiful. She will work herself into a novelist in English, bringing her parents fame and money. And, who knows, she may even bring them the Miss Universe crown.