KOZHIKODE: Kanoli Kaleidoscope, a compilation of 55 poems by Chavakkad native M.V. Fabiyas recently published by US-based PunksWritePoemPress, is now available on Amazon. Each poem deals with the life on the shores of Kanoli canal network built in 1848 on the order of the then Malabar collector H.V. Connolly as the lifeline of Malabar.
Conceptualised to ease the transportation between Kozhikode and Kochi through the waterway, it started from Kozhikode, passed through the erstwhile commercial centre of Ponnani and connected to the Chetuvazha river in Thrissur.
The poems portray life in British Malabar. A poem, Kallu's Delivery come up with the interesting comparison between a natural delivery of the goat Kallu and that of today's complicated delivery process in super speciality hospitals. “The book has a few poems I wrote in memory of my late father, M.V Alikutty, who was a Malaya-lam writer," he says.
Poems like Eternal Fragments and My Dad's Spectacles fall under this category. The poem Parattu Beevi’s Face tells the history and life through scars, rashes, mole, and other marks on the face. My Illiterate Mother, which previously appeared in Westerly of Australian University, and The Anxieties of a Widow published by British Council are some of the other poems featured. Mr Fabiyas is an English teacher at Maranchery Government HSS. His poetry and fiction have appeared in several anthologies in seven countries. Kanoli Kaleidoscope is available in three versions - American, British and Japanese - for $10.
