A day to remember, a life to cherish
In memoriam: Kamala Surayya Year 2000. When I passed out of JNU, after completing my Ph.D, I wandered about a few years in various places in Delhi in search of a place to stay and a work to support myself. It was difficult to find out a place, if you’re alone and jobless in this city. So, I started telling the landlords that “I am a writer”. And it did click with my landlord in Vasant Kunj who was a school master with whose family I had a long association ever since. He valued education and it didn’t matter to him if I actually authored a book or not as he was contented with the idea itself. For me, there was nothing new in this as I had been living this imaginary world since my childhood where I did all my reading and writing; a samantharalokam , which Kamala Das had talked about, a world parallel to the mundane reality. Kamala Das alias Surayya, one of the most influential writers who wrote in both Malayalam and English, poem and prose, literally inspired every girl to keep a