The Literary City

Bringing Grammar To Spirituality With Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam

May 04, 2022 Explocity Podcasts Season 1 Episode 19
The Literary City
Bringing Grammar To Spirituality With Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam
Show Notes Chapter Markers

There is no easy definition of spirituality.

There certainly is no dictionary definition of it.

So I decided to make sport of finding how different people defined spirituality. But  every explanation I found was merely another shade of grey. No one really could honestly define it.

I suspect that spirituality should be seen, not as a word but rather, as something that ranges from the metaphysical to the paranormal.

But my guest today, Arundhathi Subramaniam, has embarked on a more difficult mission—writing about it.

As a poet and a writer of succinct prose, she offers us a window into her lasting—and perhaps growing—sense of spirituality.

Her ability to write on this undefinable subject is an impressive skill. A skill that enables her to corral the many wayward strands of spirituality into something we can all understand—introspection.

In this episode I also dive into something else that defies me. What’s poetry?

Arundhathi Subramaniam recites three of her poems in this episode.

ABOUT ARUNDHATHI SUBRAMANIAM
Described as "one of the finest poets writing in India today" (The Hindu, 2010) Arundhathi Subramaniam is the award-winning author of thirteen books of poetry and prose. Her most recent volume of poems, Love Without a Story was described as "a breathtaking and heartwarming book" (Poetry Book Society Bulletin), "a unique poet of our times...in a league all by herself" (Indian Literature).
Widely translated and anthologised, her book, When God is a Traveller, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2020.
She is the recipient of various awards and fellowships, including the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize, the Raza Award for Poetry, the Zee Women’s Award for Literature, the International Piero Bigongiari Prize in Italy, the Zee Indian Women Award for Literature, the Mystic Kalinga award, among others. She has written extensively on culture and spirituality, and has worked over the years as poetry editor, cultural curator and critic.
As prose writer, her books include the book of essays, Women Who Wear Only Themselves, the bestselling biography of a contemporary mystic.

Link to Arundhathi Subramaniam on Amazon: https://amzn.to/38LNLEt

WHAT'S THAT WORD?! - PORTMANTEAU
Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the the word "portmanteau" and its Humpty Dumpty origins.

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?
If you have a word, expression or phrase you would like to know more about, we would love to have you join us live on the show. You can reach out to us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com.
Or, you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bangaloreliterarysociety.
Or you can go to our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/.
If your word or phrase is selected, we will call you.

Join our Facebook group, Bangalore Literary Society. It does not matter if you are not in Bangalore. This group is for anyone interested in language and words.



Cover pic of Arundhati Subramaniam: Meetesh Taneja

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(Cont.) Bringing Grammar To Spirituality With Poet Arundhathi Subramaniam
WHAT'S THAT WORD?!