Monday, 15 October 2012
Poetry Reading and discussion in Miranda House, 13th Oct, 2012
Reading session on Tattooed with Taboos
Imphal, Oct 14
A reading from an anthology of poetry, Tattooed With Taboos written and published independently in 2011 by three women poets from Manipur namely Shreema Ningombam, Chaoba Phuritshabam and Soibam Haripriya was held at Miranda House, Delhi University at 3 pm yesterday.
The event was jointly organised by the college's English Literary Society and Women's Development Cell.
The anthology was discussed in the context of the various issues and challenges faced by women in Manipur which was introduced by Ashley Tellis, gay rights activist and Assistant Professor in English at Miranda House, Delhi University.
Referring to the a series of bans and diktats that affect women beginning from the ban on "provocative" attire (with covert support by groups across the political spectrum) as well as ban of a Manipuri actress for marrying a non-Manipuri man that expresses the xenophobic nature of the Meitei society Tellis spoke of the pressing need and power of the critique offered by these three women poets.
Arguing that these women poets who also do journalistic writing, social research and comment on Meitei society had a very powerful and useful critique to offer, Tellis spoke of how their work questions Meitei patriarchy as much as official feminism associated with the traditional women's movement.
The poets read poems which questioned the various layers and kind of conservatism in Meitei society, principally through their bold and subversive renderings of their sexuality, breaking the silence around the issue of sexuality. They spoke of being inspired by their mothers and grandmothers, the challenges of bringing out the book on their own (including visiting a press located in a red-light district in Imphal)
Tellis pointed out that the critique by these women is actually respectful, internal, dialogic and important and shows their love and commitment to Meitei society and a democratic future.
He emphasised on the title of the book "Tattooed with Taboos" which encapsulates this critique and stressed that the book is a critical way of looking at the Manipuri society. The poets also expressed that their anthology has received mixed responses. The anthology had been able to incite a sense of displacement within the reader about Meitei patriarchy. However, the poets also attained strong solidarity from various sections of readers regarding the ideological undercurrents in the anthology.
In a state seeing escalating violence against women, recently in the form of rapes and gruesome murders, strongly repressive social practices like the recent rape, tonsure and parading of a mentally challenged woman instead of offering her protection from her assaulters, the appropriation of the women's groups/ collective by reactionary forces and the continuing policing of women by all quarters, the voices of these women poets come as salutary and important.
It is hoped that their poetry is heard more and that Meitei society will reflect on their own anxieties in a way that helps it combat the forces that oppress it rather than through practices and responses that exacerbate the oppression of women.
After readings last year in Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Attic in Connaught Place, they hope to have more readings this year in Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Ambedkar University, all in Delhi.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Tattooed with Taboos: ‘Quietely and Unexpectedly Poetry Came and Woke Us Up’
Source: The Imphal Free Press January 8 2011
Interview by: The Gender Studies Journal Tattooed with Taboos, An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from North East India was published by Siroi Publications and Loktakleima Publications in September 2011. The book was awarded the Best Book Production, 2011 in the recently concluded book fair held in Imphal organised by National Book Trust, Raja Rammohan Roy Library and Central Library,Imphal. This is an interview of the poetesses Chaoba Phuritshabam, Shreema Ningombam and Soibam Haripriya by The Gender Studies Journal based in University of Delhi. The poetesses talk about the process of writing and publishing poetry, negotiating gender, Manipuri society and politics. (They are referred to by their initials.)
What made you write poetry? How is your gender identity related to what you write?
S.N. : Writing poetry came to me in my school days. For me poetry is a revolt. It can hardly erupt from a banal feeling. It has to be from a deep pleasure, pain, passion or catastrophic disappointment. The feeling of being trapped in this gender construct, the anguish of the social norms associated with it and the sense of censorship and surveillance in our private and public life is expressed in several of my poems.
S.H. : This is a rather difficult question. Poetry is never apart from me and I write as a woman. There is no other way, there is no escape. I don’t think if I were a man I would have written poems.
C.P. : Seeking freedom which I don’t get in our society as a daughter, sister, and lover made me write poems. Women in our society still cannot express their own feelings freely without fearing judgement - even falling in love needs the consent of a man. My writing celebrates the desire of a woman while removing her crown of being a cultural ambassador.
What role do you imagine for poetry in feminist politics?
S.N. : Poetry can be a form of resistance and rebellion. As a part of literature it can be a medium for imagining and subsequently constructing a new world and new moral order which is fundamental to feminist politics. In this, poetry can be a means as well as an end.
S.H. : Poetry expresses what I feel as a woman and when I claim that poetry for me is very personal, how can that be divorced from politics? When I write about home, in the section ‘Angst for the Homeland’ I feel I have a certain ambivalence - why should I write for a homeland when I know it doesn’t have an inch for me?
C.P. : Poetry carries the untold dreams, desire and hopes of a person. It can provoke a reader to understand her womanhood and realise what she wants from her life. Once she claims her body and soul, no one can suppress or conquer her.
How have you three poets influenced each other’s work? Do you feel that the collective has a role to play in the process of writing?
S.N. : We have spent much time together talking, discussing for nights and days and almost eating from the same plate. If it was not for this solidarity and collective consciousness the poems may have not taken the form they have now.
S.H. : Not just this collective but ‘Burning Voices’ as a collective has shaped my poems. The discussions we have had, not of the form and structure of the poems (though I think we should take that up too) but the spontaneous emotive expressions we experienced remain a central influence on my writings. I would not have written ‘Five Day’s Untouchable’ if I hadn’t met Shreema. This poem came about after I read an article written by her.
C.P. : Without inspiration, discussion and help from my friends I would not engage too much into writing escaping my busy office schedule.
Who or what is a significant source of inspiration for you, an impetus to write?
S.N. : My grandmother was a poet though she was not a literate in the modern sense of the term. A phrase which she coined tremendously inspired me: thamna khenjongna wai wai, tharo thambalna hai hum (the lotus leaves swaying wai wai, and the lilies and lotuses swaying hai yum). She was standing in the midst of lotuses and lilies trying to gather lotus stems which she would sell in order to feed her children. Poetry is an arena of my personal resistance against the dogmas of patriarchy. When I seek freedom, I write poetry.
S.H.: Laishram Samarendra Singh, my introduction to his work is through a collection - Mamang leikai thambal satle, 1974 (And yonder blooms the lotus) a satire on the contemporary situation of the society we grew up with. In the title poem he with his trademark subtle sarcasm built a utopian Meitei community where people started caring for their work and the people around them. Thangjam Ibopishak of course, and Shri Biren for his absolute love and dedication to poetry. I read works of Memchoubi as a conscious decision, because she is a women poet. These are all Manipuri poets and I do get inspired by them though my poems are written in English.
C.P. : My mother who cannot read and write any script but has tremendous knowledge of literature. I wanted to paint her imagination in my writing. Also, being born and brought up in a troubled state like Manipur.
Please tell us about the production of the book.
S.N.: The book was printed at Kangla printers in Manipur. We had faced the price of paper zooming up because of the ongoing economic blockade. The ISBN number is given by Siroi publication and Loktakleima publication is our own consisting of the three of us as founders.
The cover design was done by Kapil Arambam. The four red drops on the cover were supposed to be on the phanek but he made it into four o’s in Tattooed with Taboos. It was wonderful. I also wonder if poetry can be for sale. So we tried to keep the price as low as possible.
S.H. : We had approached some mainstream publishing firms but since that was going nowhere we decided to pool in our own resources. Thankfully we did not know what it entailed. Publishing poetry in the time of economic blockade and socio-economic turmoil was rather difficult. Shreema was one woman warrior who coordinated the entire process through innumerable obstacles on our way.
C.P.: It’s a common goal for us to reach the people with our poems. Shreema’s father edited the book more than five times and I have no words to thank him. Kapil Arambam, who started designing the cover of this book since February of this year provided 37 cover designs, without his contribution this book would be incomplete.
Could you tell us more about the significance of the phanek?
S.N. : Phanek is a symbol and a qualifier of women in Meitei society, how we wear it, what colour we wear it and when we wear it has so much significance. From being a symbol of impurity to the symbol of resistance in nude protest phanek is a marked signifier in women’s lives in Manipur.
S.H. : That the book has a phanek for its cover is very significant in many ways. We were asked why a meitei phanek, why not any other ethnic community. But it is the meitei phanek which is tattooed with taboos. The phanek of other communities I believe, is not embedded with such stark ideas of impurity. Choosing the phanek mapanaiba as the cover was a very conscious decision. Firstly, it is untouchable, meitei men do not touch the phanek, and putting that on the cover of course will have many men touching the phanek unconsciously. Secondly, it is considered inauspicious. Of course this is strange because I am sure there is not a single man who has not yet touched a phanek.
C.P. : Its interpretation especially in Meitei society is still confusing for me. A piece of mother’s phanek is treated as something so powerful that it can even ward off evil spirits - so men living in far flung places used to carry a piece of their mother’s phanek to symbolise living under her protection at all times. On the other hand, a husband is not allowed to touch his wife’s phanek in front of others. I wonder, does a Meitei man avoid touching his wife’s phanek in the bedroom also? Phanek has now become a part of politics because self proclaimed moral police stated it as a symbol of our culture and tradition.
 |
| S Haripriya, Chaoba Ph and Shreema N |
S.N. : It means a way to resurrect our own body.
S.H. : It would mean, to me, the poems ‘Five Days’ Untouchable’ or ‘His and Hers’ . Writing from the sense of feeling, in a very physical way. An articulation of the physical and its manifestation. Why, not only these two poems, I think I have written all of them with this idea of expression of an immediate urgent sense of feeling something and that feeling is through my physical manifestation.
C.P. : Signifying a woman’s claim to own her own body and soul . Understanding her physical and emotional desire and expressing them with freedom against the social and political restraints.
What does it mean to be a Manipuri woman and write of ‘mother’?
S.N. : Motherhood can be a powerful experience. In the context of Manipur it is a source of “hysteria” and “anxiety” in every woman whether you are birthgiver or not. As in the case of Meira paibi all women are mothers. Motherhood as an archetype is very easy to be appropriated. In my poem ‘Mother’ , I speak of myself as a mother waiting to mourn the death of my yet unborn. This is an existential reality in the lives of many women in Manipur.
C.P. :Expectations of Manipuri, especially Meitei women, are too high- we should have a good character, be hard working, beautiful, polite, independent, courageous, charming, religious etc Women are also the favourite topic of criticism among some groups of moral police. ‘Mother’ is the most respectable title given to a woman in our society. Manipuri mothers are known for their participation in many social and political struggles even against the British such as “Nupi lan”. Most of the supporters of Irom Sharmila Chanu and protesters of ASFPA in Manipur are women.
S.H. : As a woman it is still very scary for me to see the notion that people have about ‘mother’. To construct this entire myth of mother and embed in her ideas of chastity, forgiveness etc. and to assume that out of every woman, motherhood will ooze is absurd. I usually refrain from writing with reference to the idea of ‘mother’. The first lines I wrote about mother (ema) (not in this collection) were these:
Ema’s tender handsI feel it that way, and I wish my mother would be accepted even if she has barbed wires for fingers…
Weary of
Creating flowers
One day
Grew barbwires
from her slender fingers
Design and published in the blog of Kapil Arambam
Book Release:Tattooed with Taboos, an Anthology of poetry by three women from North-East India
"Tattooed with Taboos" An anthology of poetry by three women from North-East India
Book Release on Imphal, September 09, 2011
Book Release on Imphal, September 09, 2011
*
An anthology of poetry titled Tattooed with Taboos by Chaoba Phuritshabam, Shreema Ningombam and Soibam Haripriya was released by the chief guest, eminent academic and activist Dr. Lokendra Arambam in a function at the Conference Hall, Manipur Press Club today. Besides, Dr. Arambam, Prof. Soyam Lokendra, Head of the Philosophy Department, Manipur University was the president and Sahitya Academy awardee and eminent poet/writer Mr. Sharatchand Thiyam, the guest of honour at the book release function.
Touching upon the poetic elements of the anthology, eminent writer and Manipuri poet Mr. Sharatchand Thiyam expressed that the three women had courageously come out and contributed to the granary of rich literature of the state. He shared that though the profiles of the poets are starkly different they together intend to put forth certain thoughts on social realities that affect us today.
Analysing the collection he shared that there is a need to engage with the work and discuss it further. He said “Now the anthology is not theirs, it is ours. It is for us to decipher and discuss what they are expressing”.
Appreciating the works of the three poets, Dr. Lokendra Arambam shared that there is a need to look at the poets – what kind of generation they are? What kind of generation do they represent? What is the society and social reality they are facing?”He also feared for the society they had inherited and wondered if the collection is but a dream of a new society. Looking at the angst that is reflected in the poetry he shared that it is now time to ask “Where is our modernity heading?”
Echoing similar views, Prof. Soyam Lokendrajit said the poetry took time to be read and the usage of metaphors seems too direct towards an altogether new school of thought. Though the poets have a different ways of expressing and a distinctly individualist style of writing yet there seem to be a thread that runs though the collection and that is in the question “Why do you write? What is the genesis of the poems?”
He also shared that a women’s body cannot be looked at only clinically as streams of blood encapsulated within skin and bones but rather it is a cultural construct. He looked at the poetry as questions to these constructs which would eventually be resisted by established patriarchal beliefs and dogma.
Besides reading out individual poems by the three poets, they also expressed their views on how they have used poetry to express their experiential encounters with the society under social, economic and political turmoil. Chaoba Phuritshabam looked at the process of the poets coming together and writing together as a journey.
Soibam Haripriya looked at the anthology as poetry that resists and stands as witness to the times and also seeks belongingness, a certain root for trees to outstretch and branch forth.
Shreema Ningombam also expressed her views and spoke of the intense process of creation of the book akin to that of bearing a child, a process which would have been impossible without the support of her parents and the many women of her family who could not be there at the release, being tied up by burden of the familial. She recited her poem “Sublime” from the collection and dedicated it to Irom Sharmila and her struggle.
“..They are goddesses
Destined to stand alone
In a temple filled with pungent prayers
With their crumbling stone limbs
Who knows her hunger for earthy love?
Who knows her yearnings to be mundane?
Who knows that goddesses too fear?
Who knows that stone too bleed?
Who knows that mute does speak
Is it that you and I
Have no heart to feel
No ear to listen”
This anthology records a specific angst of the times developed within the consciousness of the poets. Circumscribed by the construct of womanhood; enveloped within the halo of love, betrayal and breathing the anthology is located in the setting of a conflict torn society. Using the personal as a tool to document the changing frames of the society and practices which seems to be “set in stone” through the metamorphosis of their moods, anxiety, hysteria and melancholy, the poems in the words of the poets are experiential as well as reflexive. The anthology is thematically divided into three sections – Tattooed with taboos, Angst for homeland and Love and Longingness.
Chaoba Phuritshabam is a post graduate in Chemistry from Miranda House, Delhi University and an intellectual property professional. She is also pursuing her L.L.B from the faculty of Law, Delhi University.
Shreema Ningombam is currently an Assistant Professor in Nambol L. Sanoi College, Manipur. She completed her M.Phil in Department of Political Science, University of Delhi in 2009 and she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the same faculty.
Soibam Haripriya is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Sociology from University of Delhi, Delhi School of Economics, Department of Sociology. She completed her MPhil from the same department in 2010.
Tattooed with Taboos, An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from North East India is published by Siroi Publications and Loktakleima Publications published in September 2011. It is priced at Rs 200/-
The poets can be reached at : tattooedwithtaboos(at)gmail(dot)com
They maintain at blog http://tattooedwithtaboos.blogspot.com/
Link : http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=reviews.books.Tattooed_with_Taboos_An_Anthology_by_three_poets_released_20110910
Tattooed with Taboos, an anthology of poetry awarded best book production award 2011
Tattooed with Taboos, an anthology of poetry awarded best book production award 2011
Imphal Book Fair, Imphal - January 2 2012
Imphal Book Fair, Imphal - January 2 2012
Shreema Ningombam receiving the award
Tattooed with Taboos, an anthology of poetry has been awarded as a best book production award 2011 in the recently concluded Imphal Book Fair. The book fair was organized by National Book Trust, Raja Rammohan Roy Library and Central Libray, Imphal.
The award was received by Shreema Ningombam, one of the author of the book Tattooed with Taboos.
Tattooed with Taboos being sold at the Book fair
This anthology records a specific angst of the times developed within the consciousness of the poets. Circumscribed by the construct of womanhood; enveloped within the halo of love, betrayal and breathing the anthology is located in the setting of a conflict torn society. Using the personal as a tool to document the changing frames of the society and practices which seems to be “set in stone” through the metamorphosis of their moods, anxiety, hysteria and melancholy, the poems in the words of the poets are experiential as well as reflexive. The anthology is thematically divided into three sections – Tattooed with taboos, Angst for homeland and Love and Longingness.
Chaoba Phuritshabam is a post graduate in Chemistry from Miranda House, Delhi University and an intellectual property professional. She is also pursuing her L.L.B from the faculty of Law, Delhi University.
Shreema Ningombam is currently an Assistant Professor in Nambol L. Sanoi College, Manipur. She completed her M.Phil in Department of Political Science, University of Delhi in 2009 and she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the same faculty.
Soibam Haripriya is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Sociology from University of Delhi, Delhi School of Economics, Department of Sociology. She completed her MPhil from the same department in 2010.
Tattooed with Taboos, An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from North East India is published by Siroi Publications and Loktakleima Publications published in September 2011. It is priced at Rs 200/-
The poets can be reached at : tattooedwithtaboos(at)gmail(dot)com
They maintain at blog http://tattooedwithtaboos.blogspot.com/
Articles
‘Quietely and Unexpectedly Poetry Came and Woke us up’
Interview by: The Gender Studies JournalTattooed with Taboos, An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from North East India was published by Siroi Publications and Loktakleima Publications in September 2011. The book was awarded the Best Book Production, 2011 in the recently concluded book fair held in Imphal organised by National Book Trust, Raja Rammohan Roy Library and Central Libray,Imphal. This is an interview of the poets Chaoba Phuritshabam, Shreema Ningombam and Soibam Haripriya by The Gender Studies Journal based in University of Delhi. The poets talk about the process of writing and publishing poetry, negotiating gender, Manipuri society and politics. (They are referred to by their initials)
What made you write poetry? How is your gender identity related to what you write?
S.N. : Writing poetry came to me in my school days. For me poetry is a revolt. It can hardly erupt from a banal feeling. It has to be from a deep pleasure, pain, passion or catastrophic disappointment. The feeling of being trapped in this gender construct, the anguish of the social norms associated with it and the sense of censorship and surveillance in our private and public life is expressed in several of my poems.
S.H. : This is a rather difficult question. Poetry is never apart from me and I write as a woman. There is no other way, there is no escape. I don’t think if I were a man I would have written poems.
C.P. : Seeking freedom which I don’t get in our society as a daughter, sister, and lover made me write poems. Women in our society still cannot express their own feelings freely without fearing judgement - even falling in love needs the consent of a man. My writing celebrates the desire of a woman while removing her crown of being a cultural ambassador.
What role do you imagine for poetry in feminist politics?
S.N. : Poetry can be a form of resistance and rebellion. As a part of literature it can be a medium for imagining and subsequently constructing a new world and new moral order which is fundamental to feminist politics. In this, poetry can be a means as well as an end.
S.H. : Poetry expresses what I feel as a woman and when I claim that poetry for me is very personal, how can that be divorced from politics? When I write about home, in the section ‘Angst for the Homeland’ I feel I have a certain ambivalence - why should I write for a homeland when I know it doesn’t have an inch for me?
C.P. : Poetry carries the untold dreams, desire and hopes of a person. It can provoke a reader to understand her womanhood and realise what she wants from her life. Once she claims her body and soul, no one can suppress or conquer her.
How have you three poets influenced each other’s work? Do you feel that the collective has a role to play in the process of writing?
S.N. : We have spent much time together talking, discussing for nights and days and almost eating from the same plate. If it was not for this solidarity and collective consciousness the poems may have not taken the form they have now.
S.H. : Not just this collective but ‘Burning Voices’ as a collective has shaped my poems. The discussions we have had, not of the form and structure of the poems (though I think we should take that up too) but the spontaneous emotive expressions we experienced remain a central influence on my writings. I would not have written ‘Five Day’s Untouchable’ if I hadn’t met Shreema. This poem came about after I read an article written by her.
C.P. : Without inspiration, discussion and help from my friends I would not engage too much into writing escaping my busy office schedule.
Who or what is a significant source of inspiration for you, an impetus to write?
S.N. : My grandmother was a poet though she was not a literate in the modern sense of the term. A phrase which she coined tremendously inspired me: thamna khenjongna wai wai, tharo thambalna hai hum (the lotus leaves swaying wai wai, and the lilies and lotuses swaying hai yum). She was standing in the midst of lotuses and lilies trying to gather lotus stems which she would sell in order to feed her children. Poetry is an arena of my personal resistance against the dogmas of patriarchy. When I seek freedom, I write poetry.
S.H.: Laishram Samarendra Singh, my introduction to his work is through a collection - Mamang leikai thambal satle, 1974 (And yonder blooms the lotus) a satire on the contemporary situation of the society we grew up with. In the title poem he with his trademark subtle sarcasm built a utopian Meitei community where people started caring for their work and the people around them. Thangjam Ibopishak of course, and Shri Biren for his absolute love and dedication to poetry. I read works of Memchoubi as a conscious decision, because she is a women poet. These are all Manipuri poets and I do get inspired by them though my poems are written in English.
C.P. : My mother who cannot read and write any script but has tremendous knowledge of literature. I wanted to paint her imagination in my writing. Also, being born and brought up in a troubled state like Manipur.
Please tell us about the production of the book.
S.N.: The book was printed at Kangla printers in Manipur. We had faced the price of paper zooming up because of the ongoing economic blockade. The ISBN number is given by Siroi publication and Loktakleima publication is our own consisting of the three of us as founders.
The cover design was done by Kapil Arambam. The four red drops on the cover were supposed to be on the phanek but he made it into four o’s in Tattooed with Taboos. It was wonderful. I also wonder if poetry can be for sale. So we tried to keep the price as low as possible.
S.H. : We had approached some mainstream publishing firms but since that was going nowhere we decided to pool in our own resources. Thankfully we did not know what it entailed. Publishing poetry in the time of economic blockade and socio-economic turmoil was rather difficult. Shreema was one woman warrior who coordinated the entire process through innumerable obstacles on our way.
C.P.: It’s a common goal for us to reach the people with our poems. Shreema’s father edited the book more than five times and I have no words to thank him. Kapil Arambam, who started designing the cover of this book since February of this year provided 37 cover designs, without his contribution this book would be incomplete.
Could you tell us more about the significance of the phanek?
S.N. : Phanek is a symbol and a qualifier of women in Meitei society, how we wear it, what colour we wear it and when we wear it has so much significance. From being a symbol of impurity to the symbol of resistance in nude protest phanek is a marked signifier in women’s lives in Manipur.
S.H. : That the book has a phanek for its cover is very significant in many ways. We were asked why a meitei phanek, why not any other ethnic community. But it is the meitei phanek which is tattooed with taboos. The phanek of other communities I believe, is not embedded with such stark ideas of impurity. Choosing the phanek mapanaiba as the cover was a very conscious decision. Firstly, it is untouchable, meitei men do not touch the phanek, and putting that on the cover of course will have many men touching the phanek unconsciously. Secondly, it is considered inauspicious. Of course this is strange because I am sure there is not a single man who has not yet touched a phanek.
C.P. : Its interpretation especially in Meitei society is still confusing for me. A piece of mother’s phanek is treated as something so powerful that it can even ward off evil spirits - so men living in far flung places used to carry a piece of their mother’s phanek to symbolise living under her protection at all times. On the other hand, a husband is not allowed to touch his wife’s phanek in front of others. I wonder, does a Meitei man avoid touching his wife’s phanek in the bedroom also? Phanek has now become a part of politics because self proclaimed moral police stated it as a symbol of our culture and tradition.
What does the phrase ‘writing with the body’ mean to you?
S.N. : It means a way to resurrect our own body.
S.H. : It would mean, to me, the poems ‘Five Days’ Untouchable’ or ‘His and Hers’ . Writing from the sense of feeling, in a very physical way. An articulation of the physical and its manifestation. Why, not only these two poems, I think I have written all of them with this idea of expression of an immediate urgent sense of feeling something and that feeling is through my physical manifestation.
C.P. : Signifying a woman’s claim to own her own body and soul . Understanding her physical and emotional desire and expressing them with freedom against the social and political restraints.
What does it mean to be a Manipuri woman and write of ‘mother’?
.N. : Motherhood can be a powerful experience. In the context of Manipur it is a source of “hysteria” and “anxiety” in every woman whether you are birthgiver or not. As in the case of Meira paibi all women are mothers. Motherhood as an archetype is very easy to be appropriated. In my poem ‘Mother’ , I speak of myself as a mother waiting to mourn the death of my yet unborn. This is an existential reality in the lives of many women in Manipur.
C.P. :Expectations of Manipuri, especially Meitei women, are too high- we should have a good character, be hard working, beautiful, polite, independent, courageous, charming, religious etc Women are also the favourite topic of criticism among some groups of moral police. ‘Mother’ is the most respectable title given to a woman in our society. Manipuri mothers are known for their participation in many social and political struggles even against the British such as “Nupi lan”. Most of the supporters of Irom Sharmila Chanu and protesters of ASFPA in Manipur are women.
S.H. : As a woman it is still very scary for me to see the notion that people have about ‘mother’. To construct this entire myth of mother and embed in her ideas of chastity, forgiveness etc. and to assume that out of every woman, motherhood will ooze is absurd. I usually refrain from writing with reference to the idea of ‘mother’. The first lines I wrote about mother (ema) (not in this collection) were these:
Ema’s tender hands
Weary of
Creating flowers
One day
Grew barbwires
from her slender fingers
I feel it that way, and I wish my mother would be accepted even if she has barbed wires for fingers…
This interview was taken by Gender Studies Delhi and re-published by the Imphal Free, Press-http://www.ifp.co.in/imphal-free-press-full-story.php?newsid=3866&catid=3
"Tattooed with Taboos" : An interview with the Authors of the book
"Tattooed with Taboos" : An interview with the Authors of the book
Gender Studies Delhi *
Book cover of "Tattooed with Taboos"
** This interview was taken by Gender Studies Delhi, a group of feminist organization on the issues related to women, gender, sexuality of women and taboos in Manipur Society.
This is an interview with Shreema Ningombam, Soibam Haripriya and Chaoba Phuritshbam, the three poets featured in the journal's Poetry section. The poets talk about the process of writing and publishing poetry, negotiating gender, Manipuri society and politics. They are referred to by their initials below.
Q. What made you write poetry? How is your gender identity related to what you write?
S.N. : Writing poetry came to me in my school days. For me poetry is a revolt. It can hardly erupt from a banal feeling. It has to be from a deep pleasure, pain, passion or catastrophic disappointment. The feeling of being trapped in this gender construct, the anguish of the social norms associated with it and the sense of censorship and surveillance in our private and public life is expressed in several of my poems.
S.H. : This is a rather difficult question. Poetry is never apart from me and I write as a woman. There is no other way, there is no escape. I don't think if I were a man I would have written poems.
C.P. : Seeking freedom which I don't get in our society as a daughter, sister, and lover made me write poems. Women in our society still cannot express their own feelings freely without fearing judgement - even falling in love needs the consent of a man. My writing celebrates the desire of a woman while removing her crown of being a cultural ambassador.
Q. What role do you imagine for poetry in feminist politics?
S.N. : Poetry can be a form of resistance and rebellion. As a part of literature it can be a medium for imagining and subsequently constructing a new world and new moral order which is fundamental to feminist politics. In this, poetry can be a means as well as an end.
S.H. : Poetry expresses what I feel as a woman and when I claim that poetry for me is very personal, how can that be divorced from politics? When I write about home, in the section 'Angst for the Homeland' I feel I have a certain ambivalence - why should I write for a homeland when I know it doesn't have an inch for me?
C.P. : Poetry carries the untold dreams, desire and hopes of a person. It can provoke a reader to understand her womanhood and realise what she wants from her life. Once she claims her body and soul, no one can suppress or conquer her.
Q. How have you three poets influenced each other's work? Do you feel that the collective has a role to play in the process of writing?
S.N. : We have spent much time together talking, discussing for nights and days and almost eating from the same plate. If it was not for this solidarity and collective consciousness the poems may have not taken the form they have now.
S.H. : Not just this collective but 'Burning Voices' as a collective has shaped my poems. The discussions we have had, not of the form and structure of the poems (though I think we should take that up too) but the spontaneous emotive expressions we experienced remain a central influence on my writings. I would not have written 'Five Day's Untouchable' if I hadn't met Shreema. This poem came about after I read an article written by her on women's problems and issues in Manipur.
C.P. : Without inspiration, discussion and help from my friends I would not engage too much into writing escaping my busy office schedule.
Q. Who or what is a significant source of inspiration for you, an impetus to write?
S.N. : My grandmother was a poet though she was not a literate in the modern sense of the term. A phrase which she coined tremendously inspired me: thamna khenjongna wai wai, tharo thambalna hai hum (the lotus leaves swaying wai wai, and the lilies and lotuses swaying hai yum). She was standing in the midst of lotuses and lilies trying to gather lotus stems which she would sell in order to feed her children. Poetry is an arena of my personal resistance against the dogmas of patriarchy. When I seek freedom, I write poetry.
S.H.: Laishram Samarendra Singh, my introduction to his work is through a collection - Mamang leikai thambal satle, 1974 (And yonder blooms the lotus) a satire on the contemporary situations of the society we grew up with. In the title poem he with his trademark subtle sarcasm built a utopian Meitei community where people started caring for their work and the people around them. Thangjam Ibopishak of course, and Shri Biren for his absolute love and dedication to poetry. I read works of Memchoubi as a conscious decision, because she is a women poet. These are all Manipuri poets and I do get inspired by them though my poems are written in English.
C.P. : My mother who cannot read and write any script but has tremendous knowledge of literature. I wanted to paint her imagination in my writing. Also, being born and brought up in a troubled state like Manipur.
Q. Please tell us about the production of the book.
S.N.: The book was printed at Kangla printers in Manipur. We had faced the price of paper zooming up because of the ongoing economic blockade. The ISBN number is given by Siroi publication and Loktakleima publication is our own consisting of the three of us as founders. The cover design was done by Kapil Arambam. The four red drops on the cover were supposed to be on the phanek but he made it into four o's in Tattooed with Taboos. It was wonderful. I also wonder if poetry can be for sale. So we tried to keep the price as low as possible.
S.H. : We had approached some mainstream publishing firms but since that was going nowhere we decided to pool in our own resources. Thankfully we did not know what it entailed. Publishing poetry in the time of economic blockade and socio-economic turmoil was rather difficult. Shreema was one woman warrior who coordinated the entire process through innumerable obstacles on our way.
C.P.: It's a common goal for us to reach the people with our poems. Shreema's father edited the book more than five times and I have no words to thank him. Kapil Arambam, who started designing the cover of this book since February of this year provided 37 cover designs, without his contribution this book would be incomplete.
Q. Could you tell us more about the significance of the phanek?
S.N. : Phanek is a symbol and a qualifier of women in Meitei society, how we wear it, what colour we wear it and when we wear it has so much significance. From being a symbol of impurity to the symbol of resistance in nude protest phanek is a marked signifier in women's lives in Manipur.
S.H. : That the book has a phanek for its cover is very significant in many ways. We were asked why a meitei phanek, why not any other ethnic community. But it is the meitei phanek which is tattooed with taboos. The phanek of other communities I believe, is not embedded with such stark ideas of impurity. Choosing the phanek mapanaiba as the cover was a very conscious decision. Firstly, it is untouchable, meitei men do not touch the phanek, and putting that on the cover of course will have many men touching the phanek unconsciously. Secondly, it is considered inauspicious. Of course this is strange because I am sure there is not a single man who has not yet touched a phanek.
C.P. : Its interpretation especially in Meitei society is still confusing for me. A piece of mother's phanek is treated as something so powerful that it can even ward off evil spirits - so men living in far flung places used to carry a piece of their mother's phanek to symbolise living under her protection at all times. On the other hand, a husband is not allowed to touch his wife's phanek in front of others. I wonder, does a Meitei man avoid touching his wife's phanek in the bedroom also? Phanek has now become a part of politics because self proclaimed moral police stated it as a symbol of our culture and tradition.
Q. What does the phrase 'writing with the body' mean to you?
S.N. : It means a way to resurrect our own body.
S.H. : It would mean, to me, the poems 'Five Days' Untouchable' or 'His and Hers' . Writing from the sense of feeling, in a very physical way. An articulation of the physical and its manifestation.
Q. Why, not only these two poems, I think I have written all of them with this idea of expression of an immediate urgent sense of feeling something and that feeling is through my physical manifestation.
C.P. : Signifying a woman's claim to own her own body and soul . Understanding her physical and emotional desire and expressing them with freedom against the social and political restraints.
Q. What does it mean to be a Manipuri woman and write of 'mother'?
S.N. : Motherhood can be a powerful experience. In the context of Manipur it is a source of "hysteria" and "anxiety" in every woman whether you are birthgiver or not. As in the case of Meira paibi all women are mothers. Motherhood as an archetype is very easy to be appropriated. In my poem 'Mother' , I speak of myself as a mother waiting to mourn the death of my yet unborn. This is an existential reality in the lives of many women in Manipur.
C.P. : Expectations of Manipuri, especially Meitei women, are too high- we should have a good character, be hard working, beautiful, polite, independent, courageous, charming, religious etc Women are also the favourite topic of criticism among some groups of moral police. 'Mother' is the most respectable title given to a woman in our society. Manipuri mothers are known for their participation in many social and political struggles even against the British such as "Nupi lan". Most of the supporters of Irom Sharmila Chanu and protesters of ASFPA in Manipur are women.
S.H. : As a woman it is still very scary for me to see the notion that people have about 'mother'. To construct this entire myth of mother and embed in her ideas of chastity, forgiveness etc. and to assume that out of every woman, motherhood will ooze is absurd. I usually refrain from writing with reference to the idea of 'mother'.
The first lines I wrote about mother (ema) (not in this collection) were these:
Ema's tender hands
Weary of
Creating flowers
One day
Grew barbwires
from her slender fingers
I feel it that way, and I wish my mother would be accepted even if she has barbed wires for fingers…
[Tattooed with Taboos, An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from North East India was published by Siroi Publications and Loktakleima Publications in September 2011. It is priced at Rs 200/-. The book is available at People Tree, Regal Building CP]
** Shreema Ningombam is an Assistant Professor at Nambol L. Sanoi College, Manipur.
Soibam Haripriya is a Ph.D. scholar at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics.
Chaoba Phuritshabam is a Patent Scientist.
Shreema Ningombam - Read Poem written by Shreema Ningombam here
Soibam Haripriya - Read Poem written by Soibam Haripriya here
Chaoba Phuritshabam - Read Poem written by Chaoba Phuritshabam here
| One Day, Ema | His and Hers | Questions on her |
| One day, Ema! It will rain And you will unbind hair and wash it In the slow dripping from the thatch One day Flowers will bloom In your dark mystique bun As if they were never plucked One day The wind will carry The scent of your fresh steamed rice Through the corners of this ravaged street. One day They will come Whom you have waited for so long In this life or in this death. One day The rainbow will colour The ashen shawl around your bosom With your darling shades One day Your children will fling open The eternally closed gates With the calls Ema! Ema! One day Kites will fly In your blue sky with tails of freedom With no one to harness them with a string. One day I will garland around your neck The wreath so painstakingly woven As you walk past the triumphant crowd. One day, Ema One day..... -Shreema Ningombam | A bigger face a bigger strap. A smaller face A smaller strap. For thick muscular hands for thin slender arms. They said it is god given. Big things for man, small things for woman. Titan has wrapped them up with velvety cloth. Perfect wedding gift. His and hers. A bigger hand. A harder slap leaving bluish purple marks you get accustomed to. Slender hands To be wrung about helplessly. a burn here, a cut there. As one her kind should get accustomed to. And all these came packed in a golden box with velvet inside. The sturdiness of his, the softness of hers. God-given Wrapped in skin and bone, perfect gifts for Hu-man-kind. -Soibam Haripriya | Questions on her Fish evacuated Loktak Smoked bullets fill her empty lubak She recalls the face of her crying child Waiting for her to come home With handful of rice and hope... The day falls mercilessly Leaving her alone amidst the darkness. She couldn’t get even a morsel to feed Those empty stomachs. In the middle of Loktak Who cheats her for so long Embracing her only namesake : Pride Lost and left Only with her flesh To be bidden and sold. Finally she closes her eyes Murmuring and moaning in silence ‘ Is it me or the Loktak? Tell me Who is the real prostitute to you?’ -Chaoba Phuritshabam |
Link in the E-pao News http://www.e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=features.Spotlight_On_Women.Tattooed_with_Taboos_Interview_with_Authors_of_the_Book
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