In the realm of contemporary Nepali poesy, Manju Kachuli is an influential female figure. The artistic skill that characterizes this ardent advocate of women’s sensibilities is the expression of the tune of heart in a new and lucid image of the society’s entirety. Poet Manju was born in January 1950 in Kathmandu. She started writing at the age of eight, and her first work to be published was a poem ‘Dharti ra Aakash’ (The Earth and the Sky) in Ratnashree in 1967. Her books published so far include poetry collections Kiranka Chhalharu (Waves of Rays), Mero Jeevan Mero Jagat (My Life, My World) Two Sisters, Aatmapratiti (Self-Reflections) and Palakbhitra Palakbahira (Inside and Outside the Eyelashes), story collections Kehi Maya Kehi Paridhi (A Little Love and a Few Limitations), Manju Kachulika Katha (Stories of Manju Kachuli), Vishwamitrako Suhagraat (Vishwamitra’s Honeymoon) a co-authored novel Aakash Bibhajit Chha (The Sky is Divided) etc. She is a recipient of Laxmi Medal, Ratnashree Gold Medal, Vyathit Poetic Award, Guruwacharya Prize for Stories, Lady of the Month (Women’s Forum), Best Litterateur, (Theatre), Deepa Janmat Award, Mahendra Singh Karki Award, Gopal Prasad Rimal Honor etc. She lives in Kathmandu with her family. Uday Adikhari has an exclusive conversation with Kachuli for The Gorkha Times. The same has been presented herewith.
You were born into a writer’s family. How was your childhood? I assume, there must have been many memorable moments.
Writers’ families do not have power or claims as a political figure’s family does. A writer cannot provide sufficient time to his or her family. The family gets rare time to share their joy and sorrow with the writer. Sometimes both may suffer communication gaps. My father, Bhimnidhi Tiwari, was a versatile genius. He wrote and published fifty books in his lifetime. We spent our time with him in pin-drop silence and authoritative disciplining, with democratic behavior, excessive love and responsibility. He preferred efficiency and punctuality in every aspect of our activities. He was kind and liberal for good causes. He is the main cause of what I am today. He was fond of gathering. We used to be together with him. We had a big fruit garden in the back and front sides of our house. He was fond of gardening. We and our neighbors could enjoy all kinds of rare fruits from the garden. For me it was like the Garden of Eden as I remember it today. My father devoted Saturdays for us and took us to lovely places like natural sites, exhibitions, picnic spots and beautiful places in the suburb of Kathmandu. My father was the fifth decedent of his forefathers who come to live in Kathmandu from Gandaki Zone in the mid-western part of Nepal.
I used to be with my father in most of his leisure. He was a source of inspiration for me, especially for writing poetry. My mother was the source of inspiration for me for writing short stories, though she was herself an artist (fine art), a disciple of a renowned artist Lain Singh Bangdel. She used to write beautiful short stories. Three of them got published in then Gorkhapatra of her time. I used to read the stories written by her several times, and as I did, I was inspired naturally to write stories.
My elder sister, Dr. Benju Sharma and my two brothers Niranjan and Nikunja, were born and brought up at Dillibazar, Kathmandu. My father was not only a father but also a guru (teacher) in all respects. We learnt from him the merits of being efficient, perfect, punctual, diligent, kind, helpful and well-disciplined, and were taught to have good manners and many more other things that cannot be taught at schools and colleges. These are things I am unable to describe in words here.
Many people of social, political and literary personalities used to visit our home to meet our father. One day, a long white-bearded man came and sat on the chair on which my father used to sit. My sister and I looked at him astonishingly. He asked us to recall and recite his poem “Jagana jaga”. He was none but Poet Dharanidhar Koirala. Many writers and democrats from far-eastern to far-western parts of our country came to our home to meet our father. Writers from neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also visited occasionally. There used to be a beautiful reception program for them, accompanied by poetry recitation by them and by us.
We have a huge collection of literary books at home. Visiting writers from the county and abroad, literary journalists, my father, mother and teachers, the perennial environment of literature, fine art and classical music at my home, and the encouragement from my predecessors were the sources of inspiration for me to write different genres of literature. What matters most for me is the opportunities which my parents provided me from the beginning of my life. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my parents for providing me the opportunity of education without any kind of bias between male and female children in food, clothing, good care and education so that I could receive ‘Devkota Medal’ in poetry at the age of twelve and became the topper at the age of fifteen in the intermediate examination of T.U. from Padma Kanya College. One of my best friends in my class was late queen Aishwara, known more with the name Chandani Rana at the time. My major subject was English. Both of us used to write poetry and participate in literary competition in our college. She wrote beautiful poems but never recited them, may be due to shyness.
One morning I saw a sage-like man in a-saffron colored one piece dress and without shoes on his feet sitting in my father’s visiting room and talking to my father. I entered the room with a big bronze bowl full of cow milk and put it on the table in front of the sage. It was the rule of our home to serve the guests not by servants but by the members of our family, maybe for the better respect of the guests. My role was that of a silent server. After all, that person was the sage and the great historian of that time namely Yogi Naraharinath. My father requested Yogiji to have the bowl of milk to which, Yogiji replied, ‘Bachchonko pilao’, meaning, ‘give the milk to children.’ The two of them had great friendship. All the historical dramas written by my father are based on historical researches. Even many of his social short stories are based on the background of particular places, people and times of their living history.
One day, in the morning I saw Balakrishna Sama, a great dramatist and poet standing in the yard of our house in great hesitation. My father was alive but unfortunately he heard the news of the sad demise of him and had come to comfort us for the loss and express his most heartfelt condolences. When he saw the living figure of my father coming to receive him, he was shocked. My father suggested and directed my sister to write a historical drama on what had happened that day. That was the first drama she ever wrote in her life at the direction of our father. It was full of real dialogues and gestures between Tiwari and Sama. It turned out to be of great interest to the readers of that time.
We have heard that your father wanted you to be a playwright but you turned to poetry right from the beginning. How did this fascination for poetry come about?
My father actually didn’t have any urge or expectations from me. If I hadn’t excelled in my studies he would have got me married off to someone from an educated and sophisticated family in Kathmandu in my early age. I was a hardworking, intelligent, and obedient girl child. I could win the heart of my father and became his most affectionate child. He appreciated me and took me with him to each and every poetry symposium to recite my creations. He never forced me to write though. We, the two sisters, became writers. It was partly because of the environment, and partly because of the encouragement we received. The education and consciousness we acquired at that time were other factors. I think, to be a specialist in a subject is not a matter of chance being a writer is, of course, a matter of chance.
You and your sister Benju Sharma appear more like friends and less like siblings. Was there any rivalry or competition between two of you?
Of course, we two sisters seem more like friend than like siblings. We have a difference of less than three years in our ages. We were brought up and educated in a joint family in strict disciplines. We two belong to a family from a highly-cultured society of Kathmandu which gives much importance to decorum and propriety. Right and proper behavior are the requirements of a polite society. We are supposed to fulfill them. We, the sisters, respected each other, loved the other and accepted the other in every good and bad moments of life. Previously our houses were near to each other’s. When I shifted to my new house we became physically farther, but will never be mentally far in our life. My sister never takes any big step without my advice or consent. In future, we have imagined and planned to live together in the midst of nature, in a hut, far from the madding crowds. Let’s wait and see.
Let’s turn to your writing. What is your writing all about in your own estimation?
My writing is my voice but not a propaganda. Some journalists and friends often ask me what difference I find between writing poetry and fiction. I reply to them: Poetry is my inner world and fiction my outer world.
The story is a small part of the criticism of our life. I want each short story to be some portions of philosophy. In art and poetry, I love discovering inner depth of writing rather than wandering around superficial structures. Everyone has his or her stories and can tell them. Our friends, neighbours and relatives tell their own stories. To my mind, some mere happening in the name of plot and incident do not make a story.
There must be pearls underneath the ocean of writing any genre of literature. Some can read superficially which others can find pearls. I find intellectual pleasure in writing fictions. Issues and vicissitudes of life in society, joys and sorrows, struggle and expectations and other inner aspects can be delineated in fiction but on the basis of psychology and personal philosophy, for the purpose of transformation of old and worn out social concepts into a new one. Actually fiction has been written since long past by the people and for the people. So many writers have written fiction and they are unwritten history of those times and places depicting social, cultural, political, economic and human conditions. If the foreigners want to know more about Nepal they should read fiction written by Nepali writers. Fiction can be the authentic source of knowledge and information about people, their life, times and places.
Previously I used to write symbolic and plotless stories for the sake of art and intellectuality. I wrote stories with plot and incidents later. A small portion of fiction can have more power for bringing social, political and cultural awareness and changes than the speech of political or spiritual leaders. Fictions can be the anecdote of a living writers of a certain time in a disguised form. We the fiction writers of this era have written fictions about one another knowingly or unknowingly based on real incidents. It is quite an interesting read such stuffs.
You started writing stories quite late. What motivated you to pursue the genre of fiction?
I was studying for my BA at Padma Kanya College around 1965. His Majesty’s Government launched the `Back to Village´ campaign. Many students from different colleges participated in it and went to remote parts of Nepal to helped the people there with literacy and agriculture program for raising consciousness and collecting data. I was there in a group of thirty-two students from Padma Kanya College, going to Khungati Village of Lumbini under the leadership of Prof. Sahana Pradhan. We lived there in a big hut which belonged to a Chaudhary family. In fact, its owner was a landlord of the village. Female members of the family could never cross the surrounding walls of their homes. One late evening, we went into the house of the landlord. A beautiful girl of my age, with a veil covering her head and face fully, complained us about her sorrows and sufferings inside the walls. Women were like prisoners in the landlord´s home in the name of culture. I had never seen such a situation of women in my life as I had been brought up in the open, free and disciplined society of Kathmandu. I was inspired to write a story about her which was the first story I ever wrote in my life. It was published in Kasturi, a literary magazine published by Padma Kanya College. In fact that incident motivated me to pursue the genre of fiction. My first story book was published in 1980 by Sajha publication.
My first source of inspiration in the beginning was my mother, a gold medalist in Fine-arts. She also wrote stories, but unfortunately her book of short stories could not be published during her lifetime and still it hasn’t seen the ray of light yet.
Experiences of my own life, social, national and international events, books of stories from around the world, my intuitions, news, information etc. inspired me more to write fiction. I love to write poetry and fiction with equal interest. To express my views and visions through anecdotes is my prime motive behind writing fiction. To my mind, the novelty in style makes one’s writing better. A good writing is always the voice of a writer’s generation’s contemporary thoughts. What matters in writings is the milieu of art, skill, talent craft etc., expressed quite well in a very natural and spontaneous way.
You were involved in writing fiction in co-authorship. It was a new experiment in Nepali writing. How was your experience with such a venture?
I was involved in writing fiction in co-authorship of course. It was a new experience for me and a new experience in the field of Nepali literature as well. A novel was written in Kathmandu as a part of a joint venture among a few contemporary writers of that time some forty-five years ago, in 1975 to be precise. A couple of writers wrote it in their own ways and its title was The Sky is Divided. Like the title itself, everything like thoughts, feelings, expressions, styles and events depicted in that novel were our own, independent creations. It started with the writing of Mr. Parshu Pradhan, a prominent fiction writer of Nepal and ended with the writing of Prema Shah (a good friend of mine in TU), a very popular fiction writer. I was one of the authors involved.
Our role as fiction writers was to read the previous writing and continue it, adding other incidents or feelings in the way we liked. We had the liberty to write anything. We clicked without any plan or destination. But readers found a new kind of relish and aroma in it and the work became the most popular book at the time.
We had to be very careful in writing, for, it was time of absolute monarchy and we had to face strict censorship. Nevertheless that kind of fiction writing in co-authorship became a beautiful medium or a symbol of unity, interactions, sharing and solidarity among fiction writers. It was a good sample of contemporary fiction writing in one junction and it may reflect many other things for readers and critics of all times. It was a unique and interesting experience for me to write fiction in joint ventures. We swam into the world of imagination and reality in the writing process.
Sometimes it becomes a pleasurable and luxurious task for me to write fiction and I think that’s true for others too. I must get enough time and a solitary place to think, imagine and write. The best time for me to write fiction is night.
I have another experience of writing fiction in co–authorship. It was when I was in America. I received fellowship under the courtesy of the State Department of the US, in the University of IOWA in 2005, in which I was engaged in paper presentation, poetry recitations in different states, teaching, learning indoor and outdoor, intellectual, social, and cultural activities, writing fiction jointly and so on. Altogether more than thirty writers from around the world had participated in literary activities organized by IWP (International Writing Program), English Department of the University of IOWA. I got the opportunity to be one of them. Almost ten writers including me wrote a fiction in a co-authorship venture in the same process as we wrote in Nepal. The title of that fiction was Home. I still remember what I wrote then and there. I wrote the story of a character (as my part) who didn’t get the opportunity in her lifetime to dine together with all the family members on the same table. The same thing came about in my life after fifteen years from the date I wrote that fiction. This experience has become more unique to me now.
Our generation grew up hearing about Street Poetry Revolution. You were one of the poets who hit the streets reciting poems in favor of freedom opposing the authoritarian Panchayati System (one-party system). In spite of being a close friend of the Queen, I wonder what urged you to take part in such a creative protest.
Various literary movements were organized in Nepal at different periods of time. They were Boot Polish Movement, Street Poetry Revolution, Poetry of the Discarded Community, Ralpha Movement, Poetry out of Hunger, and the Third Dimension. They have contributed a lot to the history of Nepali literature. Street Poetry Revolution has its own significance and unique role not only in the literary history but also in the political history of Nepal. This literary and political movement has proved that a pen has much more power than a gun and writers could write not only in words but also in action. We, as writers, are lovers of democracy, freedom of expression and human rights. The main goal of the street protest through poetry recitation was to establish multiparty democratic system by overthrowing monarchy. Poets from old and new generations expressed their views and feelings of ‘Enough is Enough’ by reciting their revolutionary poems in the street. It was a token of revolt against the rule of autocratic monarchy. We, the two sisters—myself and Benju Sharma—were the only women to participate in the Street Poetry Revolution from the city of Kathmandu in 1979. It was in the leadership of late poet and literary journalist Mr. Bhawani Prasad Ghimire.
Our participation in the Street Poetry Revolution, 1979, was not only a revolt against the Panchayati system of Nepal but also a great revolution against traditional and biased society and the culture of the city. By reciting revolutionary poems in the street we discarded the conservative rules of the urban society and the restrictions imposed by the sophisticated status of so-called cultured family. We are proud that we could make decision for ourselves for a good cause and come out crossing the thresholds of our houses by demolishing restrictions of all kinds. So we two sisters’ status became the focus in public eyes and were black-listed by the then government. It was not a matter of joke to raise voice and revolt against the persistent autocratic government. There was no freedom of expression, freedom of gathering together, freedom of demonstration and no freedom of writing in that notorious regime. From time to time I used to be threatened by the Police at my office out of suspicion.
Queen Ashwairya, a classmate of mine more popularly known then as Chandani Rana said in her palace: “Manju Tiwari is against our political system of Panchayat.” I heard this rumor through authentic resources, but I didn’t care about it. I love my friend without any question, though I ever hated the Panchayat systems since my student life. I still love her.
I was involved in student politics since 1966 when I was the first member secretary of the student union (democratic) of Padma Kanya College. My democratic friend Bindu Koirala, myself and a few other friends were its founders. We took up political activities (banned by the constitution), combined with other colleges of that time. We were threatened by our Principal Angur Baba Joshi many times but we were courageous, brave and fearless though quite disciplined. As I was a very brilliant student, a college topper in the T.U examination and only one scholarship winner in the college, our Principal did not take severe action against me.
My intimate friend Chandani Rana did not study in that college those days. She had already left the college by that time. I still have sweet memories of her. She was sober, gentle, polite, simple and profound. She was a blend of beauty and talent.
Writers have made great contributions to give the county a new constitution based on democracy and socialism. I also had a dream of social, cultural and constitutional change in our county and had a belief that only political changes can transform our county. I worried much about the life of the oppressed and depressed class of people of Nepal who lived below the poverty line. They still have no resources for hand to mouth existence, warm clothes and shelter. They have no access to education, health security and employment. Writers like me have beautiful dreams for the welfare and maximum benefit of the poor and all the people in general. I write and act for it. We can see many writers in the world who are activists. I am myself one. I think writers have more important responsibilities for the country than ordinary citizens have.
You write in both Nepali and English languages. What are the challenges of writing in English from a country where writing in it has been just a hobby not a tradition? Your father only wrote about reforms and continued himself as a moralist. You prefer identity and modern complication of life. Is there any defined purpose of literature for you?
I write in English and Nepali both but more in my own mother tongue, Nepali. Of course writing in the English language has become a hobby for many these days. Our predecessor did not write in an international language. Great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota wrote an epic Shakuntal directly in English. For international literary conferences abroad, either Devkota or Tiwary (my father) used to be prepared for proper presentation in English from Nepal. I have seen my father lying in his bed with a Hindi or English book most of the time. He had a lot of modern Hindi books and English classics in his room which I could also read. I read Nepali literature verymuch, besides the course books.
There of course are challenges in writing in English from a county where writing in an international language like English has not been a tradition but is just a hobby. Our country had never been a part of British colonization like our neighboring country India. We didn’t have to endure the domination of an alien culture. Language also is part of a culture. Previously we had internal battle, power tussles and cold wars in the country among the ruling classes. Most of the time, some Rana families of ‘A’ class used to speak in English as a first language in their home and circle because of their education in English mediums schools and colleges in India and Britain. They became scholars of various branches of knowledge but never involved in creative writings in English. Some Brahmins were scholars of Sanskrit languages. Most of them got education in Banaras, India and read Kalidas, Bhartihari and others. They wrote poem in Sanskrit and Hindi and published there.
Even if we write in English we have very few readers. Mostly I used to write in Nepali because there were no readers to read my literature in English in Nepal. I had no access to the readers and publishers in the foreign countries that time long ago. I have many readers who read the literature written in Nepali language in Nepal. So I chose Nepali language to write literature in my country.
I have equal love and respect for both Nepali and English languages vis-à-vis four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. We had a small group of writers writing in English from our country and abroad. We used to get together and recite our writing and suggest one another. There are some institutions of young writers’ writing in English. Things are quite different in the modern age of electronic technology. Still those who write only in English may encounter many problems about publishers, readers and distributors.
There is a long age gap between me and my father. Age gap makes a lot of difference in all aspects of life including writing literature. But the final goal of most of the writing of all ages is social reform and saving humanity in the country and throughout the world. I think, my father, a versatile genius wrote for the amelioration of society and mankind. His writing is based on idealism, realism, socialism and humanism at large. He was a very popular writer of his days. He never used didactic approach of teaching in his writing. Even the titles of all his story collections are Nepali Social Stories Part1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. He had a firm belief in social reforms. He did not like smoking, drinking and gambling. He was like a saint.
Perspective and writing style may be different but literature at large does not. If we define literature it will be incomplete. To my mind literature is an influx of views and visions, a bunch of philosophy, an example of psychology, a feel of sociology, a baton of a police, a judgment in justice and a very near and dear friend of a writer and a reader and many more things. Writing as a piece of art can win a reader’s heart and can bring changes to his concept, thinking and lifestyle through awareness. It has a vital role in war and peace, in the nation and in the world. It is a beautiful blend of a writer’s internal and external world and it’s an expression in words for awareness of the identity or complexity of life for the readers or the writer himself/herself.
You participated in the Iowa University Residential Program. Probably it was a new thing in Nepal then. How did it happen? Was that helpful to expose yourself to the other world?
I was provided with the opportunity to participate in the IWP in 2005. I am very much pleased to be awarded with the title of ‘Honorary Fellow in Writing’ by the University of Iowa for participating with excellence in the creative activities of an international writing program. I could avail the opportunity of getting information, knowledge and unique experiences in various aspects during my stay at Iowa. I performed my creative works in both Nepali and English languages, and in computerized and handwritten forms. I could have created more and better if my attention had not been diverted to other charming things of America. Still I am satisfied with whatever I have done. I was very happy to find a good literary circle there with which I could enjoy my important moments becoming a part of the IWP.
I would like to thank the IPW organizers for this kind of noble activity in the field of literature and also the civilians, families and institutions who received us and appreciated our works. I returned to my country with a lot of unwritten creative experiences inspired by the Program in different parts of the US and especially at Iowa in its abundant beauty. Altogether, thirty-seven outstanding authors from different parts of the world participated in the international writing program that lasted from August 27 to Nov 21, 2005. Most of the participants including myself lived in the Iowa house hotel, in the courtesy of the Department of States. We were given time, places to visit, and read, translate, study, give readings, present papers etc. and become part of the community. My participation was primarily as a writer of fiction and poetry. As I could speak English fluently, I could learn a lot from the residency. I enjoyed the experience of being in the community of international writers very much. I got an opportunity to interact with people from diverse cultures. I could learn skills to develop the degree of independence and self-motivation in utmost degrees.
At first I was afraid that I may not be able to write but almost after two weeks I was so inspired to write poetry and stories in English, maybe by the literary environment provided by the IWP, the natural scenario of Iowa (rivers, bridges, forests, hills, winter, sunshine, gardens, trees and cornfield, people, city and villages, society, the university, libraries, museums, art galleries etc). Actually I didn’t make any plan to write within a particular area or limitation but I was engaged mostly in writing poetry, short stories, papers for presentation, short notes for teaching the higher level of university students in class of the international literature and write a novel in joint venture with international writers. I participated actively theatrical activities, field trips, social gathering and reading by IWP writers, interact with American and international writers in the University, take part in informal reception, public panel, demonstration workshop, reading and performances, collaborative writing cultural activities etc. It helped me to share the experiences with others.
Some interested IWP writers participated in the collaborative writing and I was one of them. In the residency, Maine was there to coordinate four day collaboration writing for developing a piece of literature in a form of novel which was to be performed at the Portland stage. The topic of the collaborative writing was ‘Home’. Altogether nine writers from different parts of the world including myself contributed our writing with various kinds of thoughts, feelings ideas, emotions and visions of our own.
Last but not the least, I am very much pleased that I have been conferred with the decoration of ‘Honorary Fellow of International Writing’ by IWP of the Iowa University amidst a party in Shamburg House, and my writing has been included in the course of studies in the International Writing course for higher level students at the University of Iowa. This kind of participation of Nepalese writer like me in the IWP helped a lot to introduce Nepal, and the status of Nepalese Literature and Nepalese writers to the outside world.
You activeness in the field of literature seems to have sent your musical talent to backseat. I wonder how the artist in you let it happen.
My father was fond of classical vocal music. He used to sing ragas in classical music and listened to classical vocal and instrumental performances on Nepalese and Indian radio stations in a Murphy radio of antique model which we still have. He had a sweet melodious and enchanting voice. We used to be fascinated listening to him. He inspired me to learn playing my favortie musical instrumental music ‘sitar’ and admitted me to the evening classes at Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, a music school at Dillibazar. I learnt to play the sitar there and continued the course up to diploma.
I earned a first class first diploma in sitar from Allahabad University, India. I used to participate in the musical programs organized by Radio Nepal. I presented a few performances playing sitar on Radio Nepal and in other programs in Kathmandu that time. I learnt more than fifty ragas from my reverent guru Prof. Satish Chadra Regmi, later.
My practice was to play the sitar every day (evening) accompanied by a tabla master. My father used to help me by playing the tabla in the absence of that master and I used to play the sitar. In classical music ‘taal’ or the beat is very important. I learnt how to play the tabla and the harmonium from my father. I learnt to play the ektaal, jhaptaal, trital, chautaal etc. on the tabla. My father is my guru from whom I started my education from the alphabet, and learnt instrumental music like harmonium and tabla. He used to sing ghazals, also written by him (at his young age) and put to music by himself. Our home was a conference with a good combination of art, music and literature.
My mother was an artist of fine arts. She had made and beautiful color portrait of my father depicting his young age. She preferred to make traditional art and graduated in it. My father had formed a literary organization called ‘Tiwari Literary Society’ in 1963, and I was also involved in it. Every Saturday there used to be a small gathering at home with a poetry symposium. In such a way I was born and brought up in a family in which art, music and literature were abundant in our daily way of life. In instrumental music, I had to afford a lot of time in practice but not so in writing, though both the subjects need talent, insights, imagination, creative or inventive capacity etc. I didn’t want to depend on any person or thing in writing poetry but a pen and paper and simply my imagination. I got liberty in writing poetry but not so in playing the sitar. Still I love to listen to the best of Beethoven and Mozart, other classical music pieces and the Indian classical instrumental music by Ravi Shankar on the sitar. My favorite ragas were Durbari, Malkosh, Bhairabi and so on.
In fact I was much more encouraged to write poetry from my attendance of several poetry symposiums and recitation of my poems among my father’s contemporary poets. I also received medals, prizes and awards since my very early age. I had better exposure to poets, writers, magazines, papers and journalists etc, than to music and so I left the sitar and continued poetry.
Please tell me about the foreign writers who have left impact on you and your writing over the five decades of your literary career.
I inclined towards reading extra literary books only after I joined the Padma Kanya Ccampus. Some of my friends used to read English novels. I followed them as my major subject was English literature and I was interested in reading books written in English. Some English books I got to read from my home whole some others from libraries and friends while a buy I bought from bookshops, especially from the Ratna Pustak Bhandar. Actually I was an omnivorous reader in earlier days, and I preferred to read Russian, English and Hindi books, papers and literary magazines.
My favorite writers from abroad are Guy de Maupassant, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Hardy, Bernard Shaw, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, Gorki, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Rabindranath Tagore, Kahlil Gibran etc. My most favorite poets whose poems impressed me so much are T.S Eliot, Robert Frost, WB Yeats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, GM Hopkins, Ezra Pound, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Charles Tomlinson etc. Some Indian writers whose writings are worth reading for me are Premchand, Amrita Pritam, Mahasweta devi, Jeelani Bano, Kamleshwar, Rajendra Yadav, Mohan Rakesh, Kamal Kumar etc. My most favorite Indian poets are Agyeya and Amrita Pritam.
I love to read English classics most of the time. My tastes, likes, dislikes of reading books change according to the progress of my age. These days, I love reading philosophical books including the Gita, and books by Swami Vivekananda, J. Krishnamurti, Jesus Christ (bibletestaments), Osho Rajneesh and Kabir. I also love reading about the Buddha, Jesus Christ (the Bible), Albert Einstein and so on.
My other favorite writers beyond the country are Pablo Neruda, Yannis Ritsos, Franz Kafa, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, John Chevas, JD Salinger, Arthur Conan Doyle, et. I also read reading some existentialist and female writers, like Jane Austen, Simon de Beauvoir, Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf etc. They are among those who won my heart when I was young.
As every production is the result of an input, our writing also can be the result of the inputs of our knowledge and experience which are poured into our creativity. In this way I also might have been influenced directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly by my favorite writers’ books and their thought, feelings, logics, imaginations etc. impacting our cognitive process, besides other aspects of variance.
I have found your quote somewhere: “I can keep myself away from anything but poetry.” Why such deep affiliation with poetry?
Actually I started my writing career with poetry when I was a seven or eight year old child. Since then I’ve been writing poetry. Previously I was very much impressed with the beauty of natural objects like the mountain, hill, river, field, wind, horizon, sky, tree, fruit garden, plants, meadow, geographical phenomena like earthquake, volcano, rain, wave, seasons etc. My father encouraged me to write modern poetry in free verse not in metric verses or in any other lyrical types.
In my school and college life I was very badly impressed by the news and the speech of progressive leaders who talked against colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, genocide of the children, oppression and suppression of poor and weak people on earth etc. I used my poetry against all such acts against humanity and asked for justice through poetry. My poetry used to be near and bore vicissitudes with my life. I have been coping with the difficulties of eternal and external world vehemently by writing poetry. My poetry is the reflection of the mental and environmental scenario of my life.
In my college life when I began to study poetry books by western poets I experienced a new revelation in my ideas and thoughts. Beautiful things hidden in one’s mind could be more beautifully expressed in words or the art of language as means of communication. It was a great innovative thought that forces a change in the style of writing poetry in me. I could express my struggle, agony and revolt through the medium of poetry in a new style and keep my mind in equilibrium.
Poetry for me is not a drink that a drunkard enjoys in life. It never became like an alluring spice of sex-phenomena which the writers use in their fiction as if it was a rhetoric to beautify the writings. Poetry for me is a balanced diet for a healthy human to make him/her physically and mentally very strong. I don’t write poetry with emotions and sentiments. I write with sense and sensibility, knowledge and wisdom, logic and imagination, feelings and inspiration, awareness and consciousness etc. I don’t write poetry only with a pen, a physical object. But I have such a feeling that I create my poetry with the blood of my heart, pouring it on the paper through the crying voice of my pen. I believe I have sustained.
Well, because there use to be poetry with me always and everywhere in the street, bus, car, room, bed, kitchen, bathroom, library, symposium, conference and with family, friends and guests, internal and external process of thoughts, feelings and ideas continued in dealing with the day-to-day affairs of life outside with people in words and speech and inside the mind in the language of hidden poetry. Poetry widened and gave depth to my thoughts, vision, imagination, self-consciousness, feelings, perspectives, logics, memory etc. I have a deep, pure, sincere, perpetual and everlasting relation with poetry for more than six decades. We (poetry and myself) behave with each other with better understanding, pure heart and due respect. We accept and trust each other with the best love, care, affection and belongingness. We have a beautiful, warm world amidst the hustle and bustle of city life marked by new technology. Poetry is my internal/intuitive/ mental world. All the other materially valuable things around me are superficial and less important for me. Nothing in the world is more valuable, nearer and dearer to me than poetry in reality. I live long in poetry and poetry is my life. My life is my poetry and there is no other matrix between us.