Maa Beti: A Collection of Poems by a Mother and a Daughter

This book is very special as it has precious gems. These gems are our moments together. Mom and I spent very special moments together after everyone left us after Dad passed away. Just the two of us were in the apartment, and we were discovering our lives together. My visits to India are short; by March, I return to Canada. I am not able to take the dry heat. Interestingly this year, many people from India and Delhi in special felt a different heat. The wrath of Corona. Many families were affected, and we soon became headlines with the Delta variant. I lost 8 family and friends. We were already grieving Dad’s loss, and now we had these sudden demises. Maa became clingy to her phone and kept a tab of who was with us and who wasn’t. She looked lost. My brother called us and motivated us so, did all the grandsons; Mom enjoys talking to her grandson. I persuaded Mom that we needed to go to Canada as my son was waiting. Mom loves India, her plants, her friends and then she showed me her diary where she wrote her poetry. Mom loves to write Bengali poems, and she loves to recite them. The books title is Maa Beti because people in the Orchid petal colony, Gurgaon, call us by that name. This was first coined when we took our first Covid jab. Incidentally, ninety percent of the people in Gurgaon have taken the jab.

Mallika is a Canadian citizen and was residing in India with her mom when she wrote these poems. Mallika is the Director of New Horizon Media Arts. After obtaining a Masters in Mass Communication from Mass Communication Research Center Delhi, she worked in the Indian TV industry with channels like Zee and ETV. Mallika migrated to Canada in 1999 and became a Canadian citizen but still maintained a deep connection to India.