The Poet

A Novel

Sixty years after his untimely death at age thirty-seven, celebrated poet Krishna tells his story. He travels through the dark recesses of his soul, suffering innumerable hardships, insults, pains, and failures, in spite of his success as a creative writer. Born in a traditional but declining matriarchal family of Kerala, India, Krishna proved his talents by winning school-level prizes and acclaim from teachers and senior poets. His writing marked him as a trendsetter in modern poetry, and in spite of critics taunts, readers placed him on a pedestal as a beloved romantic poet. Even so, Krishna proved a total failure in practical life. He slaved over unbridled lustful adventures and excessive inebriations, losing everything he had earned in life and destroying his family life and the future of his progeny. Despite the fame and honour he had earned, his betrayal and debauchery led to his premature death far from home and family. And yet the muse blessed him even on his deathbed, converting his pains into soft flute music in the form of a final burst of romantic verse. Presenting a tale of literary tragedy, this fictionalized biography depicts the life history of well-known Indian poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai from his own perspective.