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Armando Menezes. The Cradle of My Dreams: Selected Writings of Armando Menezes (1902-1983). Louis Menezes & Ignatius Menezes, eds. Chennai, India. Casa Goa. 2002. 278 pages. ISBN 81-7525-308-8
BROUGHT OUT on the centenary of the birth of the late Armando Menezes, The Cradle of My Dreams is a much-awaited commemoration volume offering glimpses of the varied aspects of an Indian English romantic poet, delightful prose writer, able translator, popular teacher, educationist, great patriot, pious Christian, and pilgrim. The cover design displays a portable Remington typewriter, the only material possession that served as a means of articulating Menezes's vision of life.
Armando Menezes was a romantic poet and a contemporary of Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, and Harindranath Chattopadhyaya. Sri Aurobindo described him as "one of the few Indians who really can write English Poetry: poetry that will appeal even to the English, who have so far looked askance at the efforts of most Indian poets." The first and substantial section of the present volume contains a selection of his poems written from 1933 to 1971, their themes ranging from the beauty of human life...