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Teething
A story told in verse, Teething begins when Kochu, a young boy in Kerala, is caught kissing the neighbour’s son. All hell breaks loose, ending in Kochu taking his own life. Years after the scandal, after discovering his suicide note, his oldest sister, Achu, sets out to uncover the mysteries of their dysfunctional family by putting pieces of their past back together. Along the way, she discovers things she never noticed – their mother’s brokenness and obsession with the church, their father’s disturbing secrecy inside the bedroom, and, of course, their own individual traumas that stopped time altogether. Soon, Achu realizes that none of them will ever truly grow up until they live their lives all over again, from the very beginning.
88 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2021
26 people are currently reading
970 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
January 19, 2022
Teething by Megha Rao, known for her poetry collection, this one is slightly different where we get to read about a story written in verse. This genre is slowly becoming very popular and I am glad we have an Indian poet's name to the list as well.
Teething begins when Kochu, a young boy in Kerala, is caught kissing the neighbour's son. All hell breaks loose, ending in Kochu taking his own life. The book is about Love, Life, Family, Belonging in a society where nobody understands you & much more!
Megha Rao's mesmerizing words and metaphorical phrases to her poems just slides me right into the setting of the book and brings in different emotions of sadness, joy and pride altogether at once.
The words and the pages of this book are very less, but the emotions and the story told by the author is far beyond. If you are a poetry enthusiast like me, I highly recommend you to check out her work.
Teething begins when Kochu, a young boy in Kerala, is caught kissing the neighbour's son. All hell breaks loose, ending in Kochu taking his own life. The book is about Love, Life, Family, Belonging in a society where nobody understands you & much more!
Megha Rao's mesmerizing words and metaphorical phrases to her poems just slides me right into the setting of the book and brings in different emotions of sadness, joy and pride altogether at once.
The words and the pages of this book are very less, but the emotions and the story told by the author is far beyond. If you are a poetry enthusiast like me, I highly recommend you to check out her work.
January 20, 2022
I had expectations from this and well.. I am not impressed.
But the reason is not the writing.. it's the synopsis and the false expectation it sets, and the execution!
The synopsis says it is a story in verse but it wasn't a proper story flow at all. The poems are random, not following any timeline, so it is hard to understand the exact course of events. Also, the poems are more about their mother rather than the main character, as written in the the synopsis.
But, if you see individually, the poems themselves are good! Megha Rao's words really dig deep. You can tell she is good with the words. I have highlighted so many lines.
I just wish it was marketed correctly or rather differently.
But the reason is not the writing.. it's the synopsis and the false expectation it sets, and the execution!
The synopsis says it is a story in verse but it wasn't a proper story flow at all. The poems are random, not following any timeline, so it is hard to understand the exact course of events. Also, the poems are more about their mother rather than the main character, as written in the the synopsis.
But, if you see individually, the poems themselves are good! Megha Rao's words really dig deep. You can tell she is good with the words. I have highlighted so many lines.
I just wish it was marketed correctly or rather differently.
January 19, 2022
/ Teething by @_megharao
There are certain people in this world who make you look at words like never before. They string them together like delicate pearl necklaces, only more precious. Megha's words fall onto our bodies like rose petals, the ones that are ripped from its stem. So you see beauty but also the price it had to pay for being wanted. This cracker of a book became my instant favourite, making me ponder about how something less than a 100 pages can carry such tremendous power to make one feel things all the way to their toes.
Megha writes about her family in a way that makes you want to hug yours, to protect them from all things ugly and to assure them of your love. Growing up in Kerala with her two siblings and barely present parents, Megha becomes an adult way too early. She watches her brother put on makeup and try skirts behind closed doors, sees her sister falling in and out of love, all the while dealing with heartbreaks herself. There's a lot of grief balancing on these pages, threatening to fall as you flip them. But there's also glimpses of love that acts as a salve. She writes with searing honesty by moulding her words into beautiful metaphors.
I may not be the first person to say this nor will I be the last but Megha's biggest strength is her ability to build stunning metaphors. There were times when my heart went 'Oh!' as I laid a palm on my beating chest. A soft sigh escaped my lips and I wanted to burrow myself into these pages and float on her words.
Megha's debut poetry book is much like a bittersweet memory, full of loss and love but one that always stays at the back of your mind. I strongly recommend this one.
Thank you for gifting this beautiful piece of magic to me @_megharao . I cannot wait to read more of your work 🌸
There are certain people in this world who make you look at words like never before. They string them together like delicate pearl necklaces, only more precious. Megha's words fall onto our bodies like rose petals, the ones that are ripped from its stem. So you see beauty but also the price it had to pay for being wanted. This cracker of a book became my instant favourite, making me ponder about how something less than a 100 pages can carry such tremendous power to make one feel things all the way to their toes.
Megha writes about her family in a way that makes you want to hug yours, to protect them from all things ugly and to assure them of your love. Growing up in Kerala with her two siblings and barely present parents, Megha becomes an adult way too early. She watches her brother put on makeup and try skirts behind closed doors, sees her sister falling in and out of love, all the while dealing with heartbreaks herself. There's a lot of grief balancing on these pages, threatening to fall as you flip them. But there's also glimpses of love that acts as a salve. She writes with searing honesty by moulding her words into beautiful metaphors.
I may not be the first person to say this nor will I be the last but Megha's biggest strength is her ability to build stunning metaphors. There were times when my heart went 'Oh!' as I laid a palm on my beating chest. A soft sigh escaped my lips and I wanted to burrow myself into these pages and float on her words.
Megha's debut poetry book is much like a bittersweet memory, full of loss and love but one that always stays at the back of your mind. I strongly recommend this one.
Thank you for gifting this beautiful piece of magic to me @_megharao . I cannot wait to read more of your work 🌸
April 17, 2022
I find poetry one such genre that is hard to decode.
Sometimes you grasp what the author is trying to say with all your heart sometimes it’s just words on a page
Teething by Megha Rao is a story written in verse. Which is easy to decode
The book is about love, acknowledgment, family and belonging
Megha Rao’s enchaanting words makes the book hard to put down. And you know what else makes is hard to leave once started, a short read with just 73 pages!
But those 73 pages are much more powerful than a 730 pages book.
I can see myself easily going for a re read and would recommend you’ll this one too!
March 3, 2023
One world that would describe my reading experience: hard hitting. Yes, that’s more than a word. So I am going to add triggering too.
*homophobic experienced by one close family member, suicidal tendencies, extreme bullying, mental health issues
Yes, it’s worth reading this collection.
*homophobic experienced by one close family member, suicidal tendencies, extreme bullying, mental health issues
Yes, it’s worth reading this collection.
January 16, 2022
Not gonna lie, I adore Megha Rao's poetry. This however, felt more like a collection of related but separate individual poetry rather than telling a whole story. I was lost trying to see where and how to connect. But individually, I did like the poems. The verses. They were really good and I underlined so many of them. Also I had read a few of these before on her Instagram so that was okay ig.
May 20, 2022
This was my first time reading poetry-verse book, the writings are so good that they made me smile, sad & sometimes shocked about little things, I felt the narrator is one of my friend. Megha Rao just increased my obsession with poetries and the proud feeling I get when I realise that I can understand those verses. Clearly, I am in love with this genre.
August 31, 2025
a whole story through poems and it flowed so naturally.
showed how girls and gays can feel like soulmates, which I adored.
the ‘lost in translation’ part was about love between different cultures which was my favourite I think, highlighted the difficulties of loving someone different to you but also showed how beautiful it is.
The poems where the protagonist’s sexuality comes through were v sweet and they were even more lovely to read because of the culturally significant details that really ground it in an Indian context.
Very honest book and it felt like therapy.
showed how girls and gays can feel like soulmates, which I adored.
the ‘lost in translation’ part was about love between different cultures which was my favourite I think, highlighted the difficulties of loving someone different to you but also showed how beautiful it is.
The poems where the protagonist’s sexuality comes through were v sweet and they were even more lovely to read because of the culturally significant details that really ground it in an Indian context.
Very honest book and it felt like therapy.
November 26, 2025
“I want to belong to you in ways I could never belong to myself. I want to make love to you while we hear the sirens of our pasts catching up with us. And I know there are a lot of beautiful places in this world, but your heart is the only safe space I know.”
November 23, 2024
A story written in verse but I really had a hard figuring out the story. But overall yhe book was good some so the poems and verses we're so so good that I couldn't help but underline it. Overall a great book
February 26, 2022
I am going to re-read it bye
December 11, 2022
A story written in free-verse poetry, this collection is a fictional telling of 3 siblings through the eldest's point of view. It takes it into the family trauma and how broken things can be beautiful too.
The poems, although not light, pull you in to feel the imagery created by Megha's metaphors that you can't get enough of.
Fair trigger warning for anyone who forays into going to the very beginning, the root of where everything begin to spiral downwards in one's life.
I'm not entirely convinced of her choice of title, but I hope to appreciate it better when I revisit this book (which I know I will).
It's complex, it's dark, it's troubling, yet it's real, it's truthful, it's beautiful. It paints a different shade of love on every page. The toxic, the unapologetic, the one with the self - every kind of love has been explored in this book and you will relate to atleast one of the poems.
Do give this one a read!
The poems, although not light, pull you in to feel the imagery created by Megha's metaphors that you can't get enough of.
Fair trigger warning for anyone who forays into going to the very beginning, the root of where everything begin to spiral downwards in one's life.
I'm not entirely convinced of her choice of title, but I hope to appreciate it better when I revisit this book (which I know I will).
It's complex, it's dark, it's troubling, yet it's real, it's truthful, it's beautiful. It paints a different shade of love on every page. The toxic, the unapologetic, the one with the self - every kind of love has been explored in this book and you will relate to atleast one of the poems.
Do give this one a read!
June 22, 2025
2.7/5
i feel like i’ve missed the depth that the author was conveying. idk i never seem to truly enjoy poetry.
i feel like i’ve missed the depth that the author was conveying. idk i never seem to truly enjoy poetry.
January 27, 2024
To be honest, poetry was never my forte. In the past, I used to make tomfooleries of myself by concocting whimsical sentences, stringing together ten at a time, and playfully labeling them as poems. I would gleefully send these creations to friends, who surprisingly, or perhaps regrettably, praised what I wrote. Some even went so far as to share my verses with their relatives or friends, garnering encouragement from unexpected corners. I reveled in that prideful moment, but little did I know that my poetic knowledge was close to a novice’s grasp of the alphabet.
Much like a tipsy sojourner returning to an abode, my dalliance with poetry survived for a while. At the time, I yearned to write beautifully, with the sole motive of bringing joy to people who indulged in my musings. No, I don’t want to be an author, I just want to be a good writer. In 2017, there was this friend who remarked that I use complex words and it steals away the meaning I was conveying. He gifted me a poetry book, which still lies on my shelf. It wasn’t until later that a friend, well-versed in literature, both Indian and Tamil, quoted: “A good poem starts at the ending.” I truly experienced the profundity of this insight only when I stumbled upon this book—picked impulsively alongside “Ghachar Ghochar”.
Structured in verse, the poems weave a captivating narrative. My mom always says, teeth have to be like pearls, arranged neatly without even the slightest of misalignment. That way, even the poems fitting to the title are arranged like pearls one after the other with increasing order of its beauty. Growing up in Kerala with two siblings and deficit parental indolence or presence, the author leaves trails of words for her siblings and her disjointed family when she herself is suffering from a heartbreak.
With such beautiful metaphors throughout the book, its a beautiful gander of excruciating pain that comes because of love and people who you love; friends or family, admit that you are growing old and the vulnerabilities that comes with it.
Read it not just for the verses, but for the exquisite metaphors and the love meticulously poured into each page.
Much like a tipsy sojourner returning to an abode, my dalliance with poetry survived for a while. At the time, I yearned to write beautifully, with the sole motive of bringing joy to people who indulged in my musings. No, I don’t want to be an author, I just want to be a good writer. In 2017, there was this friend who remarked that I use complex words and it steals away the meaning I was conveying. He gifted me a poetry book, which still lies on my shelf. It wasn’t until later that a friend, well-versed in literature, both Indian and Tamil, quoted: “A good poem starts at the ending.” I truly experienced the profundity of this insight only when I stumbled upon this book—picked impulsively alongside “Ghachar Ghochar”.
Structured in verse, the poems weave a captivating narrative. My mom always says, teeth have to be like pearls, arranged neatly without even the slightest of misalignment. That way, even the poems fitting to the title are arranged like pearls one after the other with increasing order of its beauty. Growing up in Kerala with two siblings and deficit parental indolence or presence, the author leaves trails of words for her siblings and her disjointed family when she herself is suffering from a heartbreak.
With such beautiful metaphors throughout the book, its a beautiful gander of excruciating pain that comes because of love and people who you love; friends or family, admit that you are growing old and the vulnerabilities that comes with it.
Read it not just for the verses, but for the exquisite metaphors and the love meticulously poured into each page.
November 19, 2023
4.5☆ — a wonderful book of poetry in verse, moving and poignant, coated with a dusty layer of nostalgia and darkness, and echoing with the sharp sting of bygone intimacies. it was pleasing to read the work of such a talented poet who happens to be from the same part of india as me, and i enjoyed the references as megha rao artfully and seamlessly combined the weight of the two languages together to create teething. my only complaint was that the premise felt slightly different from what the book ended up actually dedicating itself to, but the writing does make it worth it
March 2, 2022
There are certain texts, books and manuscripts that make you fall in love with the vulnerabilities and make you believe in the magic of delicate things like you are new to the language and you didn't know the word beyond the dictionary definition. They put, henceforth a persona so voracious and messed that it sights the same beauty as a lover's dried up flowers- weak, tender, dead externally, strong to not fall off the stem yet filled with care and concern and sacred, precise to call it perfect. 'Teething' by Megha Rao could be compared at least closer to the description above. This book leaves you way more healed, fractured and evolved than one can imagine, Megha's words are powerful to make her readers feel an emotion that leaves them craving for more with numbness.
Megha's writing feels like experiencing a physical pain- so grave that your knee shows the scars of the pain like rewards for surviving the grievousness. Her words also feel like the Antarctic witnessing spring for the first time. Through this book, Megha writes about her family and siblings in a way that keeps you haphazard mentally only to find how subtly mine and ours and her family are similar. She wears heartbreaks and trauma like shields in a war and also witnesses the war her brother waves through as he talks about the man he loves at night when their father had gotten sick of his son loving neighbor's son but he still wins because though in trauma he has the courage to dream ferociously and sees the sister she hears of getting bullied and broken. Yet the family is prominently disturbing and brilliantly innocent. and so is Megha's writing. I felt weirdly attached to the innocent and damaged mother and her siblings.
Megha's words come from a part that is still accepting to grow old with the roughness of pasts and life in general and her words cuddle with the grief and love that pens but honest metaphors molding a collection of poems as verse full of life. Megha is a sheer goddess of metaphors. and the feeling I had reading this masterpiece is something I would horribly lack to express. for someone, who loves the artist Megha Rao is, its feeling a gratitude that i finally own her words as a book i would surely wouldn't mind to weep, feel hopeful and get hurt upon even on my good days.
Perhaps, I have grown fond of this turmoil inside me that the book has given me in return- a book rustling with loss and love in equilibrium, of secrets, of traumas and winning through the most of the odds. Maybe I have the 'intoxication' of poetries just so that I stumble upon a book like this.
Megha's writing feels like experiencing a physical pain- so grave that your knee shows the scars of the pain like rewards for surviving the grievousness. Her words also feel like the Antarctic witnessing spring for the first time. Through this book, Megha writes about her family and siblings in a way that keeps you haphazard mentally only to find how subtly mine and ours and her family are similar. She wears heartbreaks and trauma like shields in a war and also witnesses the war her brother waves through as he talks about the man he loves at night when their father had gotten sick of his son loving neighbor's son but he still wins because though in trauma he has the courage to dream ferociously and sees the sister she hears of getting bullied and broken. Yet the family is prominently disturbing and brilliantly innocent. and so is Megha's writing. I felt weirdly attached to the innocent and damaged mother and her siblings.
Megha's words come from a part that is still accepting to grow old with the roughness of pasts and life in general and her words cuddle with the grief and love that pens but honest metaphors molding a collection of poems as verse full of life. Megha is a sheer goddess of metaphors. and the feeling I had reading this masterpiece is something I would horribly lack to express. for someone, who loves the artist Megha Rao is, its feeling a gratitude that i finally own her words as a book i would surely wouldn't mind to weep, feel hopeful and get hurt upon even on my good days.
Perhaps, I have grown fond of this turmoil inside me that the book has given me in return- a book rustling with loss and love in equilibrium, of secrets, of traumas and winning through the most of the odds. Maybe I have the 'intoxication' of poetries just so that I stumble upon a book like this.
January 2, 2025
Teething by Megha Rao is absolutely the kind of book I needed in my life at the moment. I don't remember the last time I read poetry and felt such whirlwind of emotions, all the at same time.
It's a story of sorts, unfolding through verses. But you see, soon enough I lost the sense of reading another person's story, and that is where it became mine.
Of loves and heartbreaks, Of happiness and grief, of multigenerational trauma and familial complications, of the rabbit hole that a depression is and of letting go. Of celebration of self-love.
Teething felt like my mother's hands stroking through my hair while she's telling it will be alright, it felt like the gentleness of cuckoo's call in a calm, breezy summer afternoon. Teething felt like my best friend lifting me up while I sob in her arms.
It made me pause and soak in all the beauty each of the page offered. It made me feel at peace, it was like a balm to my worn-out soul. Can't thank enough for writing this masterpiece that I'll definitely go back to time and again.
It's a story of sorts, unfolding through verses. But you see, soon enough I lost the sense of reading another person's story, and that is where it became mine.
Of loves and heartbreaks, Of happiness and grief, of multigenerational trauma and familial complications, of the rabbit hole that a depression is and of letting go. Of celebration of self-love.
Teething felt like my mother's hands stroking through my hair while she's telling it will be alright, it felt like the gentleness of cuckoo's call in a calm, breezy summer afternoon. Teething felt like my best friend lifting me up while I sob in her arms.
It made me pause and soak in all the beauty each of the page offered. It made me feel at peace, it was like a balm to my worn-out soul. Can't thank enough for writing this masterpiece that I'll definitely go back to time and again.
November 17, 2024
4.5 stars 🌟
I really liked this one. It was pretty impactful and made me think a lot. It explores quite a lot of themes pretty well. Would recommend!
Review written on 17th November, 2024.
DISCLAIMER-All opinions on books I’ve read and reviewed are my own, and are with no intention to offend anyone. If you feel offended by my reviews, let me know how I can fix it.
How I Rate-
1 star- Hardly liked anything/was disappointed
2 star- Had potential but did not deliver/was disappointed
3 stars- Was ok but could have been better/was average/Enjoyed a lot but something was missing
4 stars- Loved a lot but something was missing
5 stars- Loved it/new favourite
I really liked this one. It was pretty impactful and made me think a lot. It explores quite a lot of themes pretty well. Would recommend!
Review written on 17th November, 2024.
DISCLAIMER-All opinions on books I’ve read and reviewed are my own, and are with no intention to offend anyone. If you feel offended by my reviews, let me know how I can fix it.
How I Rate-
1 star- Hardly liked anything/was disappointed
2 star- Had potential but did not deliver/was disappointed
3 stars- Was ok but could have been better/was average/Enjoyed a lot but something was missing
4 stars- Loved a lot but something was missing
5 stars- Loved it/new favourite
January 1, 2022
73 pages but it will take some time as the words will go deeper into you.
March 15, 2022
some of these really hit but most weren’t really my thing
November 6, 2022
What a glorious collection! Megha Rao's style is very contemporary, part Instagram bite-sized poetry (and what an overwhelming bite!), part spoken word. The collection read in order feels like a personal diary, spilling family secrets that are hidden under shame and denial - violence, mental illness, gayness, secret trysts, disobedience in school, financial woes and more. Her poems span her own teen angst, commiseration mixed with rage at each parent, despairing empathy as well as cruel jokes for her siblings. And there is craft & finesse in each piece.
Some pieces stand out more than others, because of their poignant subjects and also because of their whimsical descriptions. Some pieces are very similar thematically and because they appear so close together, you can predict the style. Still it felt fresh to read 'The Woman' and hear echoes of 'She Was Here'. These were my favorites - Chocolates from the Gulf, They Laughed at my Braces, Do Not Mistake Me, The Pianist, My Mother's English. I was in tears as I neared the final section - Letters to Home - but I couldn't stop reading.
I know I'll come back to this book when I need a good cry to release traumas that have pried themselves loose from my own denials. And Megha Rao's poetry gives them perfect shape and form.
Some pieces stand out more than others, because of their poignant subjects and also because of their whimsical descriptions. Some pieces are very similar thematically and because they appear so close together, you can predict the style. Still it felt fresh to read 'The Woman' and hear echoes of 'She Was Here'. These were my favorites - Chocolates from the Gulf, They Laughed at my Braces, Do Not Mistake Me, The Pianist, My Mother's English. I was in tears as I neared the final section - Letters to Home - but I couldn't stop reading.
I know I'll come back to this book when I need a good cry to release traumas that have pried themselves loose from my own denials. And Megha Rao's poetry gives them perfect shape and form.
June 14, 2024
4.5 🌟
It's going to break you and heal you at the same time.
It's going to break you and heal you at the same time.
December 25, 2024
Heart-wrenching and profoundly penned down.
The book that needs to be read and re-read for inspiration, pain and when you need to really feel something, exquisitely.
The book that needs to be read and re-read for inspiration, pain and when you need to really feel something, exquisitely.
December 25, 2025
"Call me protest songs in burning cities
call me a mob’s victory march before its leader is shot
call me war graffiti from the enemy’s blood
but do not call me victim."
call me a mob’s victory march before its leader is shot
call me war graffiti from the enemy’s blood
but do not call me victim."
February 2, 2022
This is my first time reading a poetry book and I was blown away by the writing . Megha has such a way with words that my words are falling short for it ❤️
March 27, 2025
3/5 stars
The writing was quite beautiful and had me pondering.
However, I was mostly just confused trying to understand the plot? I was pretty bored most of the time. Thank god it was a short book or I wouldn’t have finished it!
The writing was quite beautiful and had me pondering.
However, I was mostly just confused trying to understand the plot? I was pretty bored most of the time. Thank god it was a short book or I wouldn’t have finished it!
August 29, 2025
God this book is such a gem! My heart is so full of so many emotions. All I can say for now is that this is a collection to savour slowly, to return to when you need comfort or courage. Megha Rao doesn’t just write poems, she crafts little worlds you can carry in your heart.🥺🫶🏻
There are poems which touched my heart deeply,and I'm gonna keep coming back to the pages of this book on days when things are too heavy,when I need a refuge,...and I know the words will comfort me, embrace me in the warm hug as they did for the first time.❤️✨
There are poems which touched my heart deeply,and I'm gonna keep coming back to the pages of this book on days when things are too heavy,when I need a refuge,...and I know the words will comfort me, embrace me in the warm hug as they did for the first time.❤️✨
April 21, 2022
Megha Rao's Teething is a mix of beautiful and haunting both at the same time.
She writes her poems in form of verse, which was the first of its kind for me. Also, she tells a story of a family that some might refer dysfunctional in a quick judgment using these verses.
The grief and vulnerabilities in these poems hit the reader hard yet soothe with the feeling of love and belonging.
Even to someone new to the magical world of poetry, the remarkable usage of metaphors would strike vividly.
This book is worth multiple reads and with every reading, it will dig deeper into your soul.
She writes her poems in form of verse, which was the first of its kind for me. Also, she tells a story of a family that some might refer dysfunctional in a quick judgment using these verses.
The grief and vulnerabilities in these poems hit the reader hard yet soothe with the feeling of love and belonging.
Even to someone new to the magical world of poetry, the remarkable usage of metaphors would strike vividly.
This book is worth multiple reads and with every reading, it will dig deeper into your soul.
February 10, 2022
TW: Suicide, rape, abuse.
“Every breath you take is a majestic roar, whether you know it or not. Your life is begging you to live it. If you listen close, you can hear the stars calling you a star. So burn on. Burn on. Burn on.”
Rao has brought everything she had on the table and more. I dived into the book very quickly without knowing that it would have such strong emotions. To be honest it did send my mind in a spiral at a point but once I got a hold of the storyline, this book was nothing less than a brilliant read for me.
The book reads more like a memoir told in verse. It is a story which shows how dangerous secrets can be, and to what extent we, as humans, go to hide them.
“Call me protest songs in burning cities
Call me a mob’s victory march before its leader is shot
Call me war graffiti from the enemy’s blood
But do not call me victim.”
You will find many metaphors about love and life, about day-to-day activities which you overlook and Rao has beautifully woven them into her book.
It is a little difficult to form a composite timeline because the poems are non-linear, but once you start piecing everything together you’ll thoroughly enjoy this book.
February 12, 2022
Teething
Megha Rao - 3/5
A book which I heard lots of praise owing to many bookstagrammers (or rather marketing on instagram). Teething happens to be the memoir of Megha Rao, atleast thats what the foreword says. Its written in verse. Poems revolve around a family comprising of 3 kids and two parents and few relatives too.
The three kids go through myriad of experiences. Turns out brother gets caught and beaten up by dad for kissing neighborhood boy. Sister gets bullied in school and herself goes through a breakup, overdosing on pills.
The poems use intense words as the experiences are painful and unforgiving. I like few of the poems, like - everything comes in two's and exchange of beedi and lipstick. But rest of others I felt pretty much okayish and ordinary.
The poems did induce a bit of sympathy, but I would like to mention these appeal only to certain set of people, not everyone would feel inclined to read poetry where an individual tries to express his / her pain. I did feel the metaphors used in the book were very predictable.
I did observe a few contradictions which kind of made me thinking!
Knowing someone is gay or likes men, why would he choose to marry a woman and why would even someone write poetry to bring out such a situation? Would you be acting or writing poetry on such stuffs?
After a week of crying over leaked personal information to an entire college, why would you prefer to write the entire thing out for an even greater public audience?
Why does love happen during student years when you haven't yet found your teething in life? Can it be ignored thus not causing a heartbreak?
Also I did feel chronology missing in the book, it kind of starts somewhere and ends somewhere. So it contradicts the foreword which says 'Reads like a memoir'.
May be I haven't read the poetry correctly or understood it the way it is meant to be. Never mind.
Cheers.
Megha Rao - 3/5
A book which I heard lots of praise owing to many bookstagrammers (or rather marketing on instagram). Teething happens to be the memoir of Megha Rao, atleast thats what the foreword says. Its written in verse. Poems revolve around a family comprising of 3 kids and two parents and few relatives too.
The three kids go through myriad of experiences. Turns out brother gets caught and beaten up by dad for kissing neighborhood boy. Sister gets bullied in school and herself goes through a breakup, overdosing on pills.
The poems use intense words as the experiences are painful and unforgiving. I like few of the poems, like - everything comes in two's and exchange of beedi and lipstick. But rest of others I felt pretty much okayish and ordinary.
The poems did induce a bit of sympathy, but I would like to mention these appeal only to certain set of people, not everyone would feel inclined to read poetry where an individual tries to express his / her pain. I did feel the metaphors used in the book were very predictable.
I did observe a few contradictions which kind of made me thinking!
Knowing someone is gay or likes men, why would he choose to marry a woman and why would even someone write poetry to bring out such a situation? Would you be acting or writing poetry on such stuffs?
After a week of crying over leaked personal information to an entire college, why would you prefer to write the entire thing out for an even greater public audience?
Why does love happen during student years when you haven't yet found your teething in life? Can it be ignored thus not causing a heartbreak?
Also I did feel chronology missing in the book, it kind of starts somewhere and ends somewhere. So it contradicts the foreword which says 'Reads like a memoir'.
May be I haven't read the poetry correctly or understood it the way it is meant to be. Never mind.
Cheers.
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