Description

Sudha’s poems are terrified inner sprouts of herself, which are equally afraid of summers and rains. Lovelessness of everyday life has watered her nellikka tree, which was a blooming pear tree when planted. The nellikkas are not bitter first and sweet later, as the proverb promises. Sudha writes: They weren’t bitter first and sweet later;/ they were only bitter, with a disguised sweetness that lured me to it, every living moment. This truthfulness and inner travels make Sudha’s poems painfully beautiful. These poems contain darkness and light, pokkuveyil and red hibiscus flowers, speech and silence.  — VM Girija, Poet

Sudha’s poetry captures subtle moments, weaving stories that reveal both beauty and chaos in the unnoticed. Her words make me pause, reflect, and lose myself in thought. Each time I read her work, I walk away with small yet profound epiphanies. — Kani Kusruti, Actor, Artist

Sudha’s poems breathe in transparent light like watercolour does on paper. It is inscribed on a tiny layer of the word’s skin. As so, they serve as a vocal cord that encapsulates the language of birds, flowers, and the wind. In her poems, womanhood is woven into a tapestry of longing, belonging, and being, with sensorium curling around each line, delicate yet firm. Not just words but live threads that connect one heart to another, voice to stillness, and ground to sky. — Sudheesh Kottembram, Art Critic, Poet, Illustrator

Sudha Padmaja Francis is an independent filmmaker and researcher from Kerala, India. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cinema at IIT Palakkad. She has made a short fiction film Eye Test and has continued to make documentary films, which have screened at many international film festivals. She has written and published poems in English since 2010.