Laksmisree Banerjee
Black Eagle Books [Dublin. USA. India]
PP 108, Year 2025
ISBN 978- 1- 64560- 637- 6
PRICE ₹ 280
---Reviewed by Santosh Bakaya
There is no denying the fact that Laksmisree Banerjee is an important literary
voice in the present literary scene. I have read many of
her books and have found the impassioned intensity of her writing almost
palpable, impacting the reader powerfully.
In the pages of this new book, The Red Woman, published
by Black Eagle Books, [Dublin, the USA, India], Patriarchy, with all
its cruel claws, is in the dock!
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| Laksmisree Banerjee |
Her poems cannot be stifled, but will
bring hope to the hopeless, revitalizing and resurrecting the women
languishing in the margins of society.
With remarkable panache, Laksmisree has woven together myriad female experiences in a Male-dominated society, symbolized by the powerful Red Woman, embodying pain, defiance, and the searing fire of rebellion. As she says in her interview with Rachna Singh, [Editor, The Wise Owl magazine], she has presented and poeticized 'The Red Woman in all her entirety."
She has a voice that excels at singing dulcet songs, but here her poetic voice reaches a crescendo of indignation at the centennial patriarchal mindset.
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| Santosh Bakaya |
With an edifying eloquence, she expresses empathy with the marginalized, the downtrodden, the silent sufferers, the child brides, the young widows, the victims of prejudice, and the invisibles. And, also, the new bride,' in closeted freedom of female glory', all dressed up in heavy finery, waiting for the doors to open,
' lattices removed,
for guests to enter, inspect, and laud
the newest toy in her in-laws' home."
Dedicated "to all such Abhayas, Nirbhayas, and fearless women
of the world, brutally treated daily, killed and raped by the
ageless guillotine of patriarchy", the book, in its 108 pages, attacks the sinister minds
responsible for the' female body and soul strewn in gory shards.'
" lacerated womanhood, the searing agony of a manacled
womanhood,"
In the Author's Note, she says
that, “the predominance of the Red Colour, its efficacy and usage is
interwoven in my poetic fabric."
”Fire and the colour red are powerful symbols that burn in her poems
and remain intensely personal, while also connecting with the reader because of
the universality and the immediacy of the issues raised," says
Debjani Chatterjee in her blurb.
The longest poem in the book is The Red Woman, pp 1-
5 - the woman who is lost in the meandering paths of
Songachi.
She exclaims,
"You are the whore,
not I
You have sold your soul
not I
You have revelled in perfidy
not I
You have traded in lust
not I”.
The back page blurbs speak highly of her poetic
talent.
Candice Louisa Daquin, [USA], calls the book 'a potent tour de force through
womanhood, culminating in a meticulous, polemic rebellion.
K. Satchidanandan says that she has consistently pursued the "painful secrets of the human condition."
The poem Timeless Sin p 30, hits hard at the regressive ritual of locking up a woman for
her crime of bleeding for 'four days a month'.
"My grandmother
was chained in darkness in the cowshed,
Barred from sunlight four days a month
It was a crime for her to bleed
Like it was for her to be a girl-"
After coming out, she would be purified with cow
dung and chilly Ganga water
"Strangling her every month
with pneumonia."
Unborn Kill, p 39 is
another hard-hitting poem on female infanticide.
"I felt my throbs
deep within
the frothy warmth of
my mother's insides...
I was she
a teardrop on the serrated edge
of being,
a dew on her hidden, clement leaf,
soon to be sucked out by
the boiling seas, the hot winds
of prejudice.”
In 'Renaissance after her Martyrdom', p 107
"No way will this upheaval ever stop
till a new awakened, sun rises in tearful blossom..."
No longer can we afford to remain complacent or
indifferent; we need to raise our collective voices against these atrocities,
against bruised womanhood, against all societal stereotypes,
In an interview with Rachna Singh, the editor of The Wise
Owl magazine, Laksmisree Banerjee says that the book
accentuates
'' the multifacetedness of women's experiences
throughout the world."
She emphasizes that the "resonant image of this book would be a
blood-smeared woman with an unfurled flag in one hand and a tight fist in the
other, proclaiming a crying rebellion for a better world of equality and
humanity."
This collection throws ample light on the brutal fact that
women continue to battle the evils of patriarchy, excruciating humiliation,
and isolation.
Some, like Maya Angelou's caged bird, alas, have forgotten to sing.
Like Laksmisree, I am also robustly convinced of the power of poetry to bring
about positive change. And this, I am sure, is one such book which will take
society by the scruff of its collar, and shake it out of its complacency.
Let me add an important point here.
Despite the bludgeoning and battering of women in a toxic patriarchal
society, Laxmisree reiterates that we continue to witness the grit and
gumption of such women to rise above the trials and tribulations of life, and We
Rise with Her.P 107
"No, we cannot stop till the seeds flower again
till the verdure of love sprouts in redressal
Till the womb stops bleeding in such a demoniac carnage
..............................
We now await appeasement of a new daybreak."
Two chilling
poems, Fire of a New Woman, PP 25, and SCARS: Burnt Woman, based on a real-life, personal Fire
Tragedy, sent chills up my spine:
In the concluding lines, of Fire of a new
Woman, I could read the message of resilience and fortitude. Out of the
ashes of the fire, a new Woman was born.
“You found your new sangfroid
I found the darkness of fire
the light of knowledge."
In [SCARS: Burnt Woman pp 23 -24] Despite ‘ice cold abandonment…”
“my tears hardened
Into granite chips…and the darkness of fire
taught her ‘the lessons of love and life’.
Bravo for writing such an important book- A book which deserves a permanent
place in the book shelves of all university and college libraries.
