Nithya Mariam John’s new book of poems is an ode to the kitchen

Kitchen Poems by Nithya Mariam John
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Nithya Mariam John’s short, crisp verses have the sweetness of elayada, the salty-spicy tang of cut mango and the freshness of lacy appams at sunrise. Poet, translator and assistant professor of English at BCM College, Kottayam, says her new poetry collection is inspired by her maternal grandfather. Nithya’s Kitchen Poems, published by Red River and released recently, is a collection of verses, memories and recipes.

Nithya does not claim to be a culinary researcher or a food expert; in fact, she only started cooking as a routine fairly recently in her life. “It is after we moved out five years ago that I started exploring the kitchen space on my own. And I am happy that this space is equally shared by my husband and eight-year-old,” she says.

Nithya’s poems are recollections of her own family’s history entangled with food, and she places the kitchen at the centre of her book. While Appachan (her grandfather to whom the book is dedicated), loved to spend time in the kitchen, the kitchen is still a gendered space, she notes. She writes of the kitchen being a space where female conversations took place.
Entire lives were lived in the kitchens. In joint families, especially, it was where the women congregated, where heated discussions, whispers of gossip and secrets were exchanged all amid laughing, chopping, stirring and grating ingredients for the day’s dishes. Nithya looks at the kitchen where women have found themselves, forged bonds even with an appliance such as the fridge.

“Every secret tucked inside containers

and tins of various sizes and shapes,  

Shut with cream and white lids…” she writes in the poem ‘Fridge’. 

‘Chapati’, another poem, touches upon domestic abuse, “the poker-faced chapatis gave away nothing about the fresh scars on the mother’s face,” writes Nithya. The poem was part of an installation What’s for Dinner, held in Jaipur, in 2024. The immersive installation was designed around real life stories of the kitchen.  

However, it is not just the women, some poems include male characters too, in relation to the kitchen.

It took two-and-a-half years to put together the book and publish it, says Nithya. She is part of The Quarantine Train, a pan-India online poetry collective, and Nithya says she was hugely inspired by poet Soni Somarajan’s collection ‘First Contact’. She credits Soni and the poetry group from whom she learnt the craft of writing. “Poetry is a constant process. It requires work — editing and rewriting. I have revisited my own poems a couple of times before I felt they were good. Even things such as spacing and line breaks carry meaning,” says Nithya.

Nithya Mariam John
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The book was received well by her fellow teachers and students in college and it led to discussions that raised interesting questions around gender and culinary literature. “It is heartening to see my book starting important conversations around gender and food,” she says.

Nithya ensures she gets some time for reading every day. “I read at least 30 to 40 minutes every day and that is what keeps me balanced.”

Nithya’s writings have been published in contemporary journals, magazines and newspapers and she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2022 and shortlisted for the Sundress Poetry Broadside contest in 2023. She has translated (from Malayalam to English) stories by Gracy, Unni R, and Shahina EK, poems by R Sangeetha, Kala Sajeevan and Sujeesh, novellas by Anju Sajith and Annie Vallikappen and books by Zacher. 

The book, with 35 poems, which carries photos by Aby Itty Kurien, has a few delicious recipes and notes tucked in, too. 

Kitchen Poems, ₹299, is available on Amazon.