'God Comes With A Hair Dryer' Review | An Enduring Sense Of Hope

Anandi Kar바카라�s debut anthology of poems, God Comes with a Hair Dryer, brims with nostalgia, sensitivity, and resilience. Despite its undertone of profound loneliness, some of her poems resonate with an enduring sense of hope, inviting readers to believe how God comes for 바카라�daughters with anxiety바카라� and 바카라�nobody but God saves her바카라�. Kar's poetic brilliance lies not only in her vivid portrayal of a deeply ingrained solitude but also in her relentless quest for connection and her yearning for a God who arrives on Sunday afternoons and does not let her sleep with a "wet head.". Much like the hairdryer, which serves as a metaphor for multiple emotions including love and protection, Kar's use of objects in her poems imbues them with fascinating and personified qualities. Whether it is the photo album 바카라�kaleidoscopic with possibilities,바카라� the Van Gogh poster 바카라�where almond flowers are blotted around like petalled snow,바카라� or the 바카라�tangerine that sobs,바카라� these objects are infused with a spirit and agency of their own, almost akin to the human characters in her poems.

Kar바카라�s moon poems are a rich tapestry woven with melancholia, madness, and magic. In verses like, "I throw the moon at the sky/Like the sprawling laughter my grandmother loved to hear like the yellow frisbee from my girlhood" or "Languages of affection/create dents on my paper cheeks," she evokes a profound sense of nostalgia and a longing for love바카라�perhaps a love unmarked by scars of affection. This desire for an unconventional existence permeates her work, more poignantly when she prays for the rest of her life to be "like an illustration from a children바카라�s book."

Her homage to her poetic godmother, Carol Ann Duffy, beautifully captures the significance of language as she writes, 바카라�All loving is done by language. Love enters the body wordily.바카라� Kar바카라�s reflection on love as a linguistic act elevates the everyday act of speaking or writing into something sacred. Yet, even more profoundly poetic is her tribute to her own mother, whose presence resonates throughout her work in gentler, sadder incarnations. The mother is portrayed as the one who 바카라�dials God바카라� and grounds the poet, embodying a strong connection to the earth itself. In the poem 바카라�When Mother Chose to Be a Teacher,바카라� the poet recalls her mother바카라�s wisdom: 바카라�No matter how far you go in life, what matters the most is to stay close to the smell of the earth.바카라� This sense of rootedness extends to the poet바카라�s deep bond with the environment, which becomes a recurring theme in her work. She mourns the cutting of a forlorn teak tree, cries for nature바카라�s destruction, and tenderly adopts an unnamed tree as her own, tying her grief to her mother바카라�s nurturing spirit. The figure of the mother threads through multiple poems바카라�she is the embodiment of nostalgia, hope, and sorrow. The poet바카라�s anguish over environmental destruction echoes through this connection, as depicted in the heart-wrenching plea: 바카라�Don바카라�t cut the Teak Tree/ Cut me.바카라� 

Although Kar바카라�s poetry possesses a tender softness and a deep, melancholic thoughtfulness, I find her political poems remarkably powerful, embodying a quiet yet resolute resilience. Her work captures the pervasive systemic oppression of women in various forms. In 바카라�Sunday,바카라� a young girl바카라�s bare toes become an object of fascination for her boyfriend바카라�s friends, while in 바카라�Ode to a Housewife바카라�s Facepacks,바카라� a housewife바카라�s resentment is palpable as her husband fails to 바카라�notice the tear in her polyester saree.바카라� In 바카라�How Inconsequential it is to be Angry at the Stranger Who Grabbed My Breast,바카라� the poet vividly portrays anger, likening it to 바카라�the cloth with which mother loves her spectacles before I leave home.바카라� This anger becomes a dominant thread woven into the everyday experiences of women, revealing how anger is the only 바카라�affect바카라� for women, as Kar says, 바카라�Affect is a woman and anger is a woman바카라�s affect.바카라� Anger becomes increasingly intertwined with the poet as she pens a partition poem about her great-grandmother, 바카라�a brave woman who crossed the barbed wires alone/ while three infants clung to her.바카라� But it is not just the effect of anger that a woman protects in her bosom, but the effect of fear too. 

This anthology is a significant contribution to the growing landscape of Indian English poetry. It infuses the genre with a fresh perspective, showcasing diversity, depth, cultural grounding, and a relatable connection to the everyday experiences of Indian youth. While Kar acknowledges that her poems바카라�whether happy, sad, or angry바카라�are deeply personal (바카라�parts of all such poems are mine바카라�), these poems resonate with me at multiple junctures. I believe that as readers, these poems become ours too, as we keep cherishing the unique textures, raw vulnerability, and unapologetic honesty that constitutes the writing. I will write a letter to her someday and let her know that her poems are healing all of us a little bit, and even if 바카라�births of poems are never celebrated,바카라� births of poets are. 

(Udita Banerjee is a research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. She likes reading and writing poetry)