The Ascent -Vol.-1 by Madathil Rajendran Nair
Published by Notion Press Platform

Madathil Rajendran Nair is an Indian poet of high stature who writes both in English and Malayali with equal linguistic dexterity. His poems are like different colored flowers, each having a distinct fragrance. ‘The Ascent‘ is Madathil Nair’s first English poetry collection containing a hundred poems.

Mr. Nair’s poems have great depth and insight and touch on a wide range of topics like love, nature, philosophy, social issues, historical facts and portraits of personalities like Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Sridevi and Tendulkar. Many of his poems too have patriotic fervor. His word-paintings are so beautiful that they leave an indelible impression on the minds of the readers.

His poem ‘My First Love Letter’ bears his signature of profound authority over English language and beauty in its smooth flow of words, stirring your heart with sweet emotions.

His very first poem of the book ‘Anaesthesia’ is a highly philosophical poem where a person under anaesthesia is like a ‘void’,a total oblivion , going through an eventless silence.

‘Anaesthesia is the name
If the experience was a blank
Where did it exist
without space and time?
And who experience it
later to be told that
men had engaged themselves
in repair work on an
unknowing mass of flesh
in a mundane matrix’

Mr. Nair’s portrayal of characters is superb with vivid imagery and chosen words that paint a perfect picture of the character, and a reader is drawn into that as if he is seeing the characters himself.

His philosophy of life is best found in his poem ’The Day After’

‘Life is Diwali, don’t worry
There is no day after or before
There is only the now
Glorious, revealing all the time
I have no choice and so I am’

Another excellent poem that expresses his view about ‘death’ is ‘Cotton Candy’

‘A cotton candy hung over me---
Idiots call it death.
Come down cotton candy,
So, I know you are a rose
that never existed at all anywhere
other than in the forebodings
of fools on an unfortunate globe
that sold themselves to the idea
of a beginning and an end.’

There is a music in life even when it goes through pains. His poem ‘I Know This Night ‘, so beautifully expresses his view—

“Singing is all that matters
Life is a ceaseless strain
No more does it matter
Which night did we sing
For time is a useless aide
When it is the heart that pains.
Night sings alone
Alone, alone and alone.”

Nature and philosophy intertwine in his poem, ’Invisible Efflorescence’

“With winter meditation ended
long fast of leafless penance done
an unseen light now showers
benediction of different colors
on waking barks and twigs 
life begins to bloom”

Cloud is the symbol of inspiration, which evokes creativity in the poet which we can see in his beautifully crafted poem - “Afternoon Thundercloud”

‘Thank you cloud
Move forward
My aridness awaits
Your enveloping embrace
Waste not this afternoon
Dreams and poesy presided by a beaming moon
Wandering over mind’s receding plains’

Madathil Nair has great empathy for the sufferings of all creatures which we can find in many of his poems.

In the poem ‘The Wind’ he writes “What rest there can be/on the street where I am?/The wind wafted over fried/delicacies-somewhere fish/somewhere meat and somewhere/just non-veg balderdash/for unsteady men inebriate/Who understands the pain/of the being that perish/on uncaring frying pans?” In the same poem he writes “A female dog fully pregnant/labored across the street/her heavy mammary glands/said the pain she bore;/she was shooed away everywhere/without remorse./Who has time for mothers/In a rain-shadow that had no time for tears/”

In the last poem ‘Nightingales Never Die’ ,the poet writes about the everlasting impression music has on him and millions of others.Music can never die and it impacts ,no matter in which tongue it is sung.

The Cover Page illustrates a steep snow-clad mountain with white clouds surrounding it perhaps indicative of the Poet’s inner journey of spiritual ascent.

In a nutshell I shall say that the readers will find in this book a treasure of wonderful poems suffused with beauty, philosophy, wisdom and love, woven in a tapestry of beautiful words.