'Noise Cancellation' envisions a sustainable consciousness: Jhilam

Jhilam Chattaraj is an academic and poet based in Hyderabad. She has authored the books, "Corporate Fiction: Popular Culture and the New Writers" (2018) and the poetry collection "When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays" (2018). Her works have been published in journals like Queen Mob's Tea House, Colorado Review, World Literature Today, and Asian Cha among others. She received the CTI excellence award in "Literature and Soft Skills Development" 2019 from the Council for Transforming India and the Department of Language and Culture, Government of TelanganaHer new book, 'Noise Cancellation,' (Hawakal Publishers), a collection of poems was launched recently.

Speaking about her book, Jhilam says, "'Noise Cancellation,' envisions a sustainable consciousness by focusing more on the lived realities of everyday rather than constant attention to digital alerts. The poems are not active but curated narratives that call for sensuous, aesthetic and cultural appreciation of poetry. Potatoes cooking in poppy seeds, a wet sari soaking the sun, a marriage as vibrant as Ugadi pachadi, the beauty of block prints, the fluidity of alcohol ink, embrace the emotional nucleus of the collection."

Jhilam says that second lockdown made her anxious and depressed. "The pandemic provided me the time to polish my craft. Since, the book began in 2019, I was fully aware of its vision and content. I have responded to the ravages of Covid-19, but everyday details remained my favourite muse; cats ('Poets of the Pandemic), dogs ('Canine'), parched hands of a woman ('Hand Cream'), and even mosquitoes ('Flea Falling') occupied my writing. During the first lockdown, I was focused but the second time, I was anxious and often depressed. However, I held on to poetry and I am grateful to life that I have come out with a book of poems that has received immense love from readers in India and abroad," she says.

Jhilam added, "I enjoyed exploring feminine sensuality and sexuality in my first book, When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays, Authorspress, 2018. However, in 2019, a shift happened within me, I wanted to reduce life to bare minimal. I began to experience reality more viscerally and was no longer afraid to refuse relationships, things and experiences that did not contribute towards my growth as a human being. Boundaries liberated my writing. Stylistic experimentations, nuanced awareness of language, studied use of humour, risky literary allusions to poets like John Donne, W B Yeats, T S Eliot, and the varied incarnations of ordinary beauty persuaded my poetry."

Jhilam says that, as she is a critic too, she offers for critical inputs. "I don't end up critiquing own poems when I am writing them. Once, the poem is complete and I have the opportunity to discuss the work with someone, then I do offer critical inputs. However, I enjoy critiquing poems by my contemporaries. I think reviewing poetry is a great learning experience."

"Delight and a refreshing sense of joy is the biggest takeaway for readers in this book. Teachers and students can relate to online education ('I Ran the Marathon Without Shoes'), women can deliberate on the gender-biases around make-up and wellness products ('Lipstick,' 'Edible Stain') travellers can experience places ('Ross Island'). Each poem enables the reader to cancel a certain kind of noise; emotional, psychological, cultural, political, environmental. The section, 'Active Noise Control' ushers a synesthetic reading experience, while 'Portraits in Pods' engages readers in the subtle play of sound, Cinquain variants, handcuffed to a measured arrangement of twenty-two syllables," she concludes.