‘Clamour for a Handful of Rice’: War, memory, and the human condition in Sonnet Mondal’s poems

Sonnet Mondal’s Clamour for a Handful of Rice are full of the wreckage of war, but they also show the strange strength of humanity that survives in the middle of it all.

In its inception, the collection lays bare the violence of war with harsh unforgettable writing that won’t let you go. “What when a missile topples the dome of a mosque? / when it rips apart the clapper of a temple bell from its mouth? / Today a missile is stuck in the head of Buddha. / Where will the birds sit now?” At this moment, religion, landscape and nature all collapse into disaster. The holy emblems of faith – mosque, temple, the Buddha – are transformed into mutilated bodies. The issue of the birds – so innocent-seeming on the surface – begs an aching question: if strife invades even the bastions of sanctuary, where can innocence take shelter?

An ominous white

Many of Mondal’s images succeed by estrangement: We see something familiar in an unfamiliar state. “These days an unusual whiteness / besieges the sky. / The loud hush of shrouds/ and rubble dust make even the winds appear white.” Here, whiteness – typically the sign of purity – looks ominous. Grief bleaches the world, leeching...

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