CONTEMPORARY INDIAN POETRY – Tanya Mendonsa, The Daughters of the Lie

Exhibitions of her paintings have been many, but as a poet, she is new to the Indian literary scene. Originally from Kolkata, she to Paris at the age of 21, to paint, major in French literature at the Sorbonne. After nineteen years, she returned to India, to live in the river-laced village of Moira in Goa, where she painted and completed her first anthology of poems. Not only poet, but also painter, Tanya Mendonsa seems to keep a low profile, preferring the solitude of the countryside over the bustle of cities. The poet Keats said, “Poetic technique is a sham: poetry must come as naturally as leaves to a tree, or not at all.” Both, poetry and painting, have come to her naturally, at an early age (she had her first solo exhibition in Calcutta when she was 19).

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE LIE – Our ways are mild, but we have tigers in the blood. We speak them smooth, but ice runs in our veins: we would tear the heart out of an enemy, as easily as we would break bread or pull a lettuce. Nobody knows us, the daughters of the lie. At a sticking point, the heath is as good a bed for us, as any sanctioned mattress. With mercy to all, we have pity for none. Although they lie with us, and stroke the sheepskin, they never see the wolf. The fangs and claws, are in the mind and heart, and nobody is spared. We have kestrel’s eyes, and our kin are the wildness and the wet. Come, the feast is spread. You can sate yourself on me, and never taste my truth. http://www.amazon.com/All-Answer-Shall-Ever-Get/dp/9351777049