Interview by Anupama Krishnakumar
[box]In an interview to Spark, Abha Iyengar talks about her poems, stories and writing in general. Catch her interesting replies to Anupama Krishnakumar’s questions here.[/box] [box type = “bio”]Abha Iyengar is an internationally published freelance writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines and literary journals, both in print and online. She is a Kota Press Poetry Anthology contest winner. Her story, ‘The High Stool’ was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. She has won several literary contests. She has contributed to popular anthologies in the U.S. ‘The Simple Touch of Fate’, ‘Knit Lit Too’ and ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ are some of these. Her work has appeared in literary journals like Moon dance, Raven Chronicles, Gowanus Books, Tattoo Highway,Tryst3, Bewildering Stories, Kritya, river babble, Enlightened Practice, Poet Works Press, Fabulist, Door Knobs and Body Paint, Citizen 32, Arabesques Review among others.[/box]1. A poet, a writer, a screenplay writer and an activist. And then there’s photography and art too. That’s quite a wide range of creative interest and activity. Which of these roles is closest to your heart? Why?
At heart I am a poet. The song that comes from within me and onto the page is poetry. All else is just explorations of a world I live andbelieve in, which is the world of creativity, the expression of the self in myriad ways.
2. How exactly did your writing journey begin? Is there some incident that made you sit up and say ‘Oh yes, I want to be a writer!’?
This is so clichéd, but I was always a writer. I love language and the expression of it. I have been a voracious reader. However, there were the distractions of life to be lived in real time, so my writing self really emerged much later. It happened with the coming of the Internet and my explorations of online submissions. I sent out a few submissions to magazines/contests outside India, (non-fiction, poetry, and fiction) and each submission was snapped up, so I knew I had something there. Then I just ‘chose the path’, paying heed to nothing else finally but the call of my soul. Everything else fell away, giving me my essential.
3. Talking of poetry, I find your poems to be simple yet graciously touching the heart, in contrast to the general perception that poetry is a highly evolved form of literary expression. It would be interesting to know your take on the purpose and nature of poetry.
Anything that is highly evolved has to be simple. Evolution does not mean something that cannot be understood. I also believe that people ‘think’ too much about what poetry should or should not be. Poetry is a direct connect to the heart, it goes straight to the heart of the matter in a few words. Meera, Kabir, Nida Fazli, Gulzar, Maya Angelou, Khusro, Rumi, Rilke, the list is endless…do you find their poems difficult or lacking in literary expression because they are simple?
4. And what inspires your poems? Tell us about how each of Abha’s poems is born!
Ah! Now that’s a question. My poems appear out of the blue for me and if I don’t catch them, they leave me, ‘pouf’, just like that. I never get those words back, not the way they sounded and felt, just right, when I first heard them in my head. So I have to immediately write them down. There is a magic to poetry. I also write poems in Hindi, because they flow from within me.
5. Then there are the stories too. Where do the ideas for your stories come from?
You know, when we talk of all the areas I cover, it is because I delight in them, the unknown turfs. I began as a poet, then began to write short, very realistic stories, then went on to flash fiction, and surprisingly, now write speculative fiction as well and love it! Films, plays, editing, things just come along and I try them all.
The ideas are all over the place, someone I see, something I hear, a setting I want to use. Sometimes, it is a half-dream that I flesh out. I have a very fertile and imaginative mind and I have learnt to appreciate this. I am thankful to the Universe to have made me realize and acknowledge my creative spirit.
6. Tell us a bit about how you build your characters. Are they inspired by the people that you see around you or are they born entirely from your imagination?
Creating characters is like making a dish. You are given certain existing ingredients, but you have to add your own zest, dressing, spice. Sometimes there is just a look you see in someone’s eyes and you want to create a totally different character around that look. Sometimes you see a scarf and wonder what kind of person would wear that scarf and for what purpose? Or you spot an interesting character and wonder about him/her and so the characterization follows. It requires getting into the skin of the person you create, you have to lose yourself. Fiction is wonderful because you can do anything with it; it’s malleable clay.
7. Have you often felt a story taking its own course when you write?
All stories have a life of their own. Often, I wonder how I wrote a particular story and where it came from. This is very different from writing articles, which I also do, where you have to be very factual, and you must know where the facts come from.
8. What do you feel is the biggest reward for a writer?
Appreciation and respect, plus the heady adulation of those who love your work. This is the most energising and humbling of experiences. However, I do feel very strongly that writers also need to be paid more. The kind of hard work and devotion that writing requires is just not understood by people. Creative writing is poorly paid, if at all. The notion that only a ‘starving’ writer is a true writer or that writers should write for love alone, has to change. Writers need support and funding and spaces where they get time to write.
9. As someone who does workshops on creative writing, what are some of the most important things that you tell people about writing creatively?
I will state the predominant ones. Absolute passion, hard-nosed perseverance, continuous discipline, uninhibited imagination and an insatiable desire to read, learn and imbibe.
But first write. And write.
Who said this was easy? 🙂
10. Talking of blooming authors, there’s suddenly a whole lot of new writers getting published in India. What is your view on this development and the standard of the content?
There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of audiences. I adore certain writers, can’t understand some, am indifferent to several, therefore I pick and choose. And I am an individual. So the world, made up of so many individuals, has its varied tastes. To each his own, I say. There has been a boom in writing because all kinds of writing is getting churned out, and snapped up by publishers because they are scared to miss out on the next Chetan Bhagat. The more the merrier. I am here to write, tell my stories, sing my songs, not pass judgement.
11. It would be interesting to know about your work as a screenplay writer. How different is writing a screenplay from writing say a story or a poem? Are there any particular challenges?
Screenplay writing is different from writing narrative or poetry. All forms of expression require the understanding of the craft, any presentation of work brings with it certain requirements. Since movies are primarily visual, screenplays require ‘visual writing’. Action and drama are more important and screenplays have to be written with this in focus. My film, “Parwaaz”, based on one of my poems, is poetic in its treatment but vividly visual. Offers keep coming my way for screenplays. The opportunities today are boundless.
12. What about your role as a social activist? Tell us more about the work you have been doing on this front.
I was seriously involved with a lot of NGO work at one time, and then decided to concentrate on writing completely. However, I do think that through my writing and my interactions with people, I influence thinking and attitudes. I am very concerned with women’s issues and also the need for education. I contribute to NGOs that work with these. I write on such issues and also get my work published in collections that deal with them. For instance, I have contributed to the anthology, “Nothing But Red”, published as a reaction to and condemnation of the stoning of a 17-year-old, Dua Khalil Aswad, in 2007.
I do not shout from the roof tops but my views are out there to be heard.
13. On a final note, you have recently published a book of poems. So, what’s going to follow that?
I am racing to complete my novel, I have been tarrying with it. So now I have decided to concentrate on it and am enjoying the process completely. Life intrudes, of course, but that is as it should be. I believe that a writer belongs to both spaces, the outer and the inner, but favours the inner one more! For me, the outer world is what life is all about, and the inner space very sacred.
Abha Iyengar’s website : www.abhaiyengar.com
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