Famous American Poet Williams Carlos once said, “A poem is a little machine made out of words.”  Anupama is a machinist who is packed with powerful, original images which turn into a delightful surprise for the poetry lover by her lush language and vibrant imagination.

Anupama Raju is a poet, translator and a freelance journalist based in Trivandrum who has verbalised the hidden beauty of the photographs captured by French photographer Pacal Bernad as part of a collaborative Indo-French Poetry and Photography Project which was recently exhibited in the city.

“The poetry- photography project is a part of the cultural partnership between Pondicherry and the city of La Rochelle, France. Pascal and I spent almost ten days in Pondicherry to find the heart beat of the city.  The project ‘Une Ville, Un Lieu, Une Personne' (‘One City, One Place, One Person') portrays the cross section of the city which has a mix of Indian and French culture, through images and words.”

Anupama will soon fly to France to take part in  the Poetry- Photography exhibition which will be held in La Rochelle. She plans to spend time in France to discuss and conceive her next project.

“In our ‘One City, One Place, One Person’ project I wrote the poems after Pascal clicked the photos. In the next project, it will be in reverse. I’ll be writing the poems first and then Pascal would visualise it. This project is named as ‘Depths and Surfaces’.  Here we will be exploring the depth of a city - its heritage and culture."

This experimental poet’s work have been published in The Little Magazine, Indian Literature, Mint Lounge and several anthologies, including  Harper Collin’s Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry which was published in 2011 and edited by Sudeep Sen.

“I really don't know what triggered me to pen my thoughts. I wrote my first poem, when I was fifteen years old. After coming to Trivandrum I started taking writing seriously. It was Poet Laureate late Ayyappa Paniker who motivated me to write. He introduced me to the poetry group in the city, ‘Kavita’.  I was, probably, the youngest among them. I got my first poem- ‘House of Dreams’ published in The Little Magazine. This inspired me and I started writing a lot.”