poetry – Booknomics

Interview: Writing Haiku, Haiga and Haibun with Salil Chaturvedi

We had the opportunity to chat with Salil Chaturvedi, author of love and longing in the anthropocene.

Salil Chaturvedi is the author of short fiction and poetry and dabbles in photography. His stories and poems have been published in various journals and anthologies. He loves creating haiku, haiga (a combination of a visual and a haiku) and haibun ( a short prose piece, combined with haiku), which have been published in international journals dedicated to the Japanese forms. His poetry collection, In the Sanctuary of a Poem was published in 2017 and is available on Amazon. In 2019 he was conferred the Hindi Seva Samman by the Hindi Academy, New Delhi, for his collection of Hindi poems, Ya Ra La Va Sha Sa Ha. He lives in Chorao, Goa.

Pothi.com: Tell us about your writing process.

Salil Chaturvedi: It’s quite a messy and reiterative process. Once the first draft of something is down on paper, I tend to look at it from many angles, trying out different ways of saying it, different voices and viewpoints, so that I frequently end up with quite a few versions of a piece, complicating my life. But when one finds such joy in working with words it is a welcome complication. I can happily spend a day fussing over a single word in a poem, or a punctuation mark! The way things sound plays an important role, too. For some poems, their shape on the page becomes exceedingly important. But there are enough of those times when things happen in a more spontaneous manner and any fiddling would only spoil things.

Pothi.com: How did you develop an interest in haiku, haiga and haibun? Please tell your readers about how these forms of Japanese poetry differ from each other and which one is your favorite?

Salil Chaturvedi: Let’s tackle the forms first:

A haiku is a short poem, usually juxtaposing two images to find a leap of meaning, and in English, about 10-12 syllables long.
A haibun is a short prose piece, written imagistically and usually in the present tense, with a haiku attached, though there are other variations to it. A haiga is an image, traditionally a monochrome ink painting, with a haiku attached to it in such a way that they expand each other’s meaning.

I had known about haiku for a long time, but my serious engagement with the form began after reading Basho’s classic The Narrow Road to the Deep North. It’s a book I return to regularly. I honed my skills through reading haikus of the masters, the various online journals dedicated to Japanese forms and books. There are plenty of educational resources online, especially on the Modern Haiku website, such as essays that explore various dimensions of the form, its historic development and other finer points. Since I like taking pictures, haiga, where a haiku is juxtaposed with an image, was a natural progression.

Amongst the three, haiku remains my favourite form.

What I like most about it is how it hones your attentiveness to the world. If poetry can be imagined as a net made out of words, I think of haiku as a finely meshed net that is ideal for capturing the littlest of mundane things. As Basho said, for haiku the interest is not duck soup, but vegetable broth. For me, the single most important aspect of the haiku is the kigo (the season word) which is a nod to the larger world in which all the happenings take place. In that sense, Ecopoetics runs in the DNA of haiku. I am reminded of the feminist scholar and philosopher Donna Haraway who says: The biotic and abiotic powers of the Earth are the main story.

Overall, I can sum up my encounter with haiku thus:

thunder
inside a curled leaf
a cocoon shifts

Pothi.com: You write in Hindi and English- how different is it writing in different languages?

Salil Chaturvedi: That’s an interesting question. One doesn’t make a conscious choice, of course. The poems seem to choose a language of their own accord. I guess my Hindi roots are still alive and their tentacles seek out some vernacular nutrition. On rare occasions, I translate a poem from one language to another, but otherwise, it’s an automatic process. The Hindi poems seem to say things that I can’t possibly say in English because the idioms are so different. Taking the first few lines of a poem, Kuch Hai—

Kuch hai hawa me is vakt—
Dopahar ke sapno ki svarna lahar

Gilahariyon ki chulbul cheekhein
Baadlon ke maylon ke dholak

I wouldn’t know how to say it in English and maintain the same cadence!

I do write haiku in Hindi as well, just so your readers know that that’s possible. In fact, there are a few of them in the Hindi book Ya Ra La Va Sha Sa Ha available at Pothi.com.

Pothi.com: Tell us about how you arrived at the fascinating title: love and longing in the anthropocene.

Salil Chaturvedi: It just popped into the head! There are three sections in the book, and ‘love and longing in the anthropocene’ is the first section which brings together the body, love, techno-science, nature, refugees, wars, runaway capitalism, disappearing species…in short, everything that marks the consumptive and polluting Anthropocene era. The work was born from a dream in which I wrote a short poem, the only time I have written a poem in a dream. It was an erotic/love poem. I woke up and wrote it down immediately, and for about six months after that, I kept writing these poems to an imagined lover where the body (and the earth as an extension of the body) takes a central place. So, yes, it was a fascinating and intense process in which I seemed to be taken along for the ride. Later, I realized that the title forms a nice acronym — LALITA, meaning, pleasant, playful.

Pothi.com: How do you put a book of poems together- what is the glue that holds your poems in a certain order? Is the ordering of your poems planned or organic?

Salil Chaturvedi: So, this is how it works—I will struggle with the sequencing and arrangement of the poems for weeks, trying out many combinations. I will see myself as a reader and read through the work noticing how a poem on a page reacts with another on the facing page. I will also pay attention to the way the tone of the book develops, what moods are evoked. I will play with all this. It’s a thrilling sort of game. The poems will keep shifting and changing places and then, one day, will come together. Then I am ready to publish. After publication, I will find that I might have wanted to do it slightly differently. So, it goes! That doesn’t mean that all the thinking has been a waste, just that there is always scope for improvement.

Pothi.com: Writers are usually apprehensive about publishing their poetry. Could you advise aspiring poets about which avenues they should consider for publishing their poems?

Salil Chaturvedi: I think the best way to go about it is to first send poems to journals that accept poetry. There are a plethora of online journals these days. The advantage is that you get some feedback on your work from editors and readers. While it is easier to publish through self-publication options, including with Pothi, I feel that many people rush to publish their work. I have had a few aspiring poets who have sent me manuscripts, and my advice generally has been to take a little longer to publish, allowing the work to gestate and mature. I’m just passing on the advice that I have received from seniors.

Pothi.com: Tell us about your experience self-publishing with us.

Salil Chaturvedi: The process is easy and smooth. The staff is ultra-professional and accessible. The author dashboard is a great feature that lets you track your sales and royalties. But, one drawback of self-publishing remains marketing. While some writers are good at it, most that I know, including myself, would rather write than promote their work. But, that’s a whole different conversation. Also, self-publishing means that mainstream publications do not review your work and you have to work harder at developing your market and finding readers.

Pothi.com: Your favorite poet.

Salil Chaturvedi: That’s an unfair question, but for now, I’ll say Arun Kolatkar.

Pothi.com:Your favorite beverage.

Salil Chaturvedi: Sikkim Temi Tea.

Pothi.com: Future projects you are excited about.

Salil Chaturvedi: Right now, I’m looking forward to bringing out a short story collection which is titled The Inexact Room. It should be ready by March-April, if all goes well. Apart from that, I have a vague idea for a collection of haibun.

Thanks for the informative session, Salil! Wish you all the best for your writing!

Interview: Nitheesh Reddy Gaddam

We spoke to the poet Nitheesh Reddy Gaddam.

Nitheesh Reddy Gaddam was born in Mamidipally, Telangana. He currently works as a software engineer in Atlanta, USA. He is popularly known as niteesh_writings on Instagram. His writing style is unique, particularly due to his original technique of writing on pieces of torn paper. His first book Two Hearts & Two Bodies Part 1 was released on June 25th, 2018 in USA and Jan 15th, 2019 in India. More about the poet here.

Tell us about your writing process.

My writing process is simple. I always carry a pen and paper. Every time I feel sad or happy, I put my feelings on a piece of paper and I attach all those papers on my wall.

When you started posting your poems on Instagram, did you expect such a positive response?

Since my childhood I have loved storytelling, I always like taking people to another world with my stories. It was in March 2017 that I first posted my writing on Instagram. I didn’t post it to get likes or to impress people. I posted it only to know how to use Instagram. I posted a few of my writings for a few days. My friends and the people around me laughed at my writing but I didn’t care because people are only there to make fun. In November 2017, I wrote a small story Love, Lust and Pain in four parts and that is when people started appreciating my writing. I got many messages from people from India, Nepal and Pakistan. After a few months, students from NIFT Kannur asked me to write an article about sexual harassment of women in their college. After I wrote the article, people started respecting my writing. A few days later, I wrote a small story about how Indian parents sacrificed their dreams and goals so that their children could have better lives. That is when people started loving my writing and started respecting me. But there are a few people who always make fun of my grammar. I don’t give up because poetry and stories are not only about great grammar. They are also about feelings, emotions, happiness, sadness, love, pain, life, tears.

                           I turned

                           my tears into letters,

                           my pain into words,

                           and my love into poetry.

Why do you write on torn bits of paper?

My heart is broken into millions of pieces and I’m fixing it by writing on each torn bit of paper. It was in June 2017. I was at a coffee shop. After I drank the coffee I held the coffee cup in my hand for a few minutes. I wrote a poem on it and posted it on Instagram. I felt it was something different and unique. I started going to the coffee shop everyday not for coffee but for the coffee cup. I used to tear the coffee cup into pieces and write on them. It is always better to put your words on a piece of paper than typing it on smartphones or laptops.

You write a lot about broken relationships and dealing with depression. Tell us more about why these topics appeal to you.

I always write about what’s been happening in my life. Human emotions should be real, not fiction. I write about relationships because I don’t want people to make the same mistakes that I had in my life. Because of my stupidity and immaturity, I lost many people in my life. I never had anyone to tell me what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. Life teaches me everything and I’m still learning. I sometimes write about depression because most educated people think sadness is nothing but depression. But people should understand the difference between depression and sadness. If you want something and you don’t get it you feel sad for a few days and that is called sadness but depression is a disorder that can kill people sometimes.

What do you do when you are not writing poetry?

I play cricket, spend time with my dog, watch movies or travel.

Who is your favorite poet or writer?

Veturi Sundararama Murthy gaaru and Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry gaaru.

Tell us about your next project.

I am working on finishing the script for my upcoming film. I also started writing a fiction novel titled Go Alia Go about the soccer player Alia.

Was great talking to you, Niteesh!

Interview: Sunaina Patnaik

Sunaina Patnaik is a twenty-something writer from Hyderabad. Her writing explores the realms of vulnerability, loss, healing,and self-love. Warm Delinquencies is her debut collection of poetry and writing that deals with the matters of the heart.

We decided to talk to this poet about her journey.

I would come running with
shovels and spades,
torn paperbacks and bottles of ink,
and get my hands dirty all too willingly,
we aren’t meant for calm seas,
blue horizons, and clear skies,
who are we fooling?
we are only destined for
dingy basements, sappy music, and
warm delinquencies.

You have published a poetry book with themes exploring love, separation, and healing. How did you zero in on these themes?

In my experience as a reader, I’ve read a number of books that dealt with subjects like love, separation, and healing individually but not together. When I started writing ‘Warm Delinquencies’, I was certain that I wanted all these subjects together to convey the journey of a lover, the aftermath of a heartbreak and eventually, the healing.

Which poets or writers have influenced you the most?

Growing up, I read Ruskin Bond and Enid Blyton avidly. Inspired by Bond, I started penning personal essays at an early age, sent it to my friends in the form of letters, postcards etc. which made me familiar with tracing inspiration from my life and things happening around me.

The other writers that influence me are Haruki Murakami and Vikram Seth. I keep going back to Seth’s poetry because of its ethereal beauty.

Tell us about how you got started with writing and what motivated you to get published.

I did several pieces and interviews throughout high school and college. I found writing poetry and personal essays quite cathartic and started a blog in 2011, succeeding which I never had to look back. The intent of publishing it originated when I realized I had a readership that resonated with my thoughts.

Do you think that poetry is more popular than people would like to admit?

I like to believe that poetry has always been popular for its power to express a lot in little. Although the rise of poets on Instagram is a new trend, it’s still just an additional medium for writers to share their work. We’ve always sought solace in Plath’s or Bukowski’s poetry; millennials now are drawn towards the poetry of Lang Leav, Michael Faudet etc. because of the writing form which is lucid and deals with modern issues.

But what I think has really changed is the mindset towards poetry. When I was in school, poetry was perceived as something undecipherable; however, the world is now more open to poetry.

Where do you write? Tell us a bit about your writing process.

I can write anywhere. Through chaos and silence. In crowds and isolation. But mostly I tend to write in the comfort of my room, usually late in the night.

Tell us about your latest project.

Right now, I’m working on a collection of short stories. I’ve started this project much before I’ve embarked on writing Warm Delinquencies, but it’s still a work in progress. I’m hoping to finish it towards the end of 2018. Fingers crossed!

What is your favorite pastime besides poetry?

Juggling between reading, writing, and a 9-5 job leaves me with very little time. But when I find time, I binge-watch TV shows, movies, and explore new restaurants in the city.

Thank you, Sunaina!

You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.