Lopamudra Bannerjee reviews, Sunny Side Up, a collection of poems and stories in English,by Sunayana Kachroo Bhide. An exclusive for Different Truths.

“When the Kangris and Pherans make a comeback

and the steam from the hot sheer chai ignites the soul

When the mighty Himalayan peaks huddle together to guard
the secret of nature, of creation.

It is winter in in Kahsyap meer, Kashmir”

[From ‘Kashyap Mir…Kashmir’, Sunayana Kachroo]

Born and brought up in the idyllic Kashmir, Sunayana Kachroo’s poetic sensibilities, undoubtedly have been shaped by the tenderness and nostalgia of being a quintessential Kashmiri girl. As a fellow poet, when I had met her some years back through the common thread of poetry, both of us being Diaspora women in America, what struck me about her was her poems, lyrics in both Urdu/Hindi and English, which spoke about the inherent beauty and the rawness, the fragility of the soul of an immigrant.

Her cravings, despair for the socio-political scenario of our postmodern world, her unmistakable pain of memories of an emotionally fraught Kashmiri woman stayed with me like an old perfume that I sometimes sprayed on myself to experience, internalise the whiff of remembered winds, that of my own hometown Calcutta, the pangs of those same memories and anecdotes of childhood, girlhood and more.

Through Sunayana’s unassuming poetic journey penned in her own words as a rendezvous with “sounds, words, ideas, and thoughts…at the most unusual times to narrate their sordid and outlandish details”, through reading her Kavita, English Poems, Nazms and Dohe, a couple of which I had the privilege of transcreating into English at her request, there was the birth of a beautiful artistic camaraderie. And this unusual bond has also helped me understand her lyrical microcosm, where the influence of the Urdu poems and lyrics of Gulzar Saab was felt unmistakably.

Her literary and artistic oeuvre has been vast and impressive, encompassing poetry and lyrics, dialogue writing for films, collaboration with musicians et al. Her debut poetry collection in Hindi, ‘Waqt Se Pare’, which she gifted to me, was a unique poetic revelation of the various trajectories of life, envisioned by the lens of a woman, mother and artist. In ‘Sunny Side Up’, her first collection of poems and stories in English, the pen of Sunayana is volatile, subversive and serene, tranquil at the same time, sometimes assuming the voice of a wistful, full-grown woman who questions her existential realities as a child, sometimes assuming the voice of a rebel who craves to dissect mythology, cultural ideologies which are actually skewed as we have been taught them, and the harsh realities surrounding females in a largely patriarchal world.

In her micro fiction, Draupadi Cheer Haran, she writes these intensely incisive lines:

“She was shocked but soon realised that men in power find more pleasure in seeing the righteous men defeated rather than seeing a disrobed woman.

 
“She also realised that her so-called courageous husbands did not put themselves as bait but chose to trade her at a game.”

Again, in the poem ‘Duck Off’, she writes:

“Good Girls don’t abuse” explained my mother

So, I relinquished all my dare words and kept competing for the tiaras to fit in… 

I replaced

Dream with Extreme

Dare with Fear

Fight with Polite

Science with Kitchen appliance

Anger with Surrender

These are verses which show that her literary musings may reach varied dimensions, across space and time, delivering universal truths metaphorically, where her identity as an artist and a woman is at the center of the narratives.

Carl Sandburg had once famously said: “Poetry is an echo, asking for a shadow to dance.”

Refreshing lines of poetry can transport us to an alternate mindscape, then again bring us back to our real, palpable words, rejuvenated, with a beautiful, inexplicable semblance of emotions which connects us to the poet, and if that happens, poetry becomes our muse.

Sunayana’s verses, emphatic, unapologetic, crisp and evocative, have that magic power to transport; it is like that ubiquitous echo, and with the passion and introspective courage of her lines, these verses implore us to dance to the sheer musicality of her lines.

But it is not only the lyrical intensity and fervour of her poetic self, but also the messages conveyed through the poems, the message of a solitary journey of an artist and her inner world, the message of an inherent and unique feminism, the message of yearnings of a poetic heart amid all the inner and outer turmoil of the world which lie at the core of the poems and musings of this collection.

As the title ‘Sunny Side Up’ suggests, the poems and micro-tales are apparently savoury, delightful as literary pieces, but deep within, it is the heart, the soul and the rich tapestry of the poet’s mind which will stir the readers’ imagination. It is a book which will be memorable because in it, the author portrays how fleeting images of her life cast their impressions on her ever-curious heart, creating a wider perspective for the readers.

Photos sourced by the reviewer

Lopamudra Banerjee

Lopamudra Banerjee is an author, poet, translator, and editor with nine solo books and six anthologies spanning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her work has earned recognition in India and the USA. Recent notable books include a collaborative poetry collection with Priscilla Rice, We Are What We Are (1st Prize, New York Book Festival 2024); her translation of Mallika Sengupta’s Kabir Bouthan as The Bard and His Sister-in-Law (Honorary Mention, Paris and Hollywood Book Festivals 2024); and Draupadi theke Nijashwi (2025).