"In Santacruz, Diagnosed Home Sick" is a poem by the Indian English poet and novelist
K Srilata
K. Srilata (also known as Srilata Krishnan) is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and academic based in Chennai. Her poem, ''In Santa Cruz, Diagnosed Home Sick'' won the First Prize in the All India Poetry Competition (organized by the B ...
. The poem won First Prize in the Eighth All India Poetry Competition conducted by
The Poetry Society (India)
The Poetry Society (India) was formed in July 1984 at New Delhi as a voluntary association to promote Indian poetry and to look after the interests of Indian Poets. The founding members included the Indian poets Keshav Malik, J P Das, H K Kaul ...
in 1998. This was the first major literary award for Srilata, who subsequently won the Unison British Council Award and Charles Wallace Fellowship for Poetry.
Excerpts from the poem
:At the gift shop by the wharf
:I bought an indigo octopus
:all arms...
:I, a newcomer to this
:out-of-the-way white-hippie town
:settle into the sea.
::: *****
:My two-month hostility melts
:even as I see what divides me from home
:more clearly than I did from my airless plane.
:The sea knows ways of connecting too,
:fluidly hugging,
:in long-armed benevolence,
:the puzzle-edges of vast continents.
Comments and criticism
The poem has received critical acclaim since its first publication in 1998 in the book ''Emerging Voices'' and has since been widely anthologised. The poem has been frequently quoted in scholarly analysis of contemporary
Indian English poetry
Indian English poetry is the oldest form of Indian English literature. Indian poets writing in English have succeeded to nativize or indianize English in order to reveal typical Indian situations. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first ...
. The poem has inspired many literary works of similar name.
See also
*
The Poetry Society (India)
The Poetry Society (India) was formed in July 1984 at New Delhi as a voluntary association to promote Indian poetry and to look after the interests of Indian Poets. The founding members included the Indian poets Keshav Malik, J P Das, H K Kaul ...
Notes
{{reflist
External links
Eighth National Poetry Competition 1998 – Award WinnersK Srilata – An Interview
K. Srilata
''India Writes'' – Contemporary Indian Poetry K Srilata – Man Asian Literary Prize"Popular Indian Poems"
Indian poems