Kashmir Pandit poet: ‘Political parties are like third-rate pimps sitting on human skulls’

Dr. Sanjay Parva, born and brought up in the beautiful Malmoh hamlet of Jammu and Kashmir’s Varmul district, developed love for poetry and started writing in his childhood. He co-authored ‘The Merchant of Seasons’ with a poetess from Buffalo, New York. His poems have appeared in journals of international repute like ‘Prophetic Voices’, ‘The Plowman, Noreal’ and ‘Score’. Dr. Parva, a physician by profession, is a recipient of many awards and has also featured in ‘World Anthology Of Poets’ and ‘Common Wealth Quarterly’ a number of times.

Based in India’s Rajasthan, his latest book ‘Words About To Fall’ is a nostalgic compilation of more than fifty poems on love, loss and home. In a freewheeling chat with Kashmir Dispatch’s Hakeem Rauf, he talks about the love he has for ‘Malgudi Days’ and why ‘political parties are like third-rate pimps sitting on human skulls’. Excerpts:

HR: Tell us about yourself?

SP: A Kaeshur. A die-hard Kaeshur, who sleeps and wakes up dreaming home. Writer since the age of 13, mostly unheard of, unspoken about. But I am fine with it and happy that God had gifted me this knack of shuffling words on paper that linger on my mind and finally on reader’s. I feel blessed.

HR: Your first book has got published recently…

SP: Slight correction. This is the third, but since the first two, ‘Innocent Voices’ and ‘The Merchant of Seasons’ (both co-authored) remained relatively unheard of, this is the first one.

HR: What is ‘Words About To Fall’ all about?

SP: It is a collection of poems based on three themes of love, home and loss. I wrote almost all of these poems during my teenage; mostly between 16 and 19 years of age.

HR: Did you face any challenges in getting the book published?

SP: It happened at Residency Road in Srinagar. One sunny day in June 2013, I dropped in at this beautiful Gulshan Books store, where books were so stacked that the same would form an alley way to inside. Asked for the owner, didn’t know him then and was guided upstairs. I introduced myself, citing a local vernacular which publishes my column– ‘Musings’. I thought this would work since I am told the column is very popular in Kashmir and elsewhere. The owner asked me what all I am willing to get published. I said a lot, but poetry first. “Fine, go ahead,” he said. “We will look forward to the manuscript,” he added. It began there and here we are. The book was supposed to be out in September 2014, but for these floods. I feel things happen when they have to and seeing your book in print is more a matter of luck and time than anything else. There are books with bad plots that get published and good ones being left out. It is a question of time. You are destined to get good things until you have had bad of almost everything else.

HR: You told the owner/publisher ‘poetry first’, so I assume you have unpublished works…

SP: Yeah, there are three, one of which might take a couple of months before it goes into line. All set in Kashmir and one of them something that might change the course of my life. And my readers’ perception too about what I have been writing so far. As far as I know it would be second of its kind; but let you wait and watch.

HR: Tell us something about your writing-journey…

SP: Strangely though, my first poem was in Hindi, written soon after my primary school teacher beat me with a stick for flying a kite soon after the school was over. He was infuriated. Beat me bad. I came home and penned down this poem of 12 lines titled ‘chaddi’- the stick. Then there was a gap and finally my first poem in English was ‘The New Year’s Whisper’. It was carried by a local vernacular and then that was it; never looked back and began being accepted by newspapers and journals here and abroad. Won some poetry prizes too; mostly from societies abroad, again unheard of since it was not the age of internet.

HR: How much time do you devote to writing each day? Do you write draft on paper or at keyboard?

SP: None, actually. In mind. If my thoughts are not able to weave the whole script in just one go, I consider the plot as bad, as laboured, as unimportant to follow. I give up. It is better not to carry a thought than to carry a bad one. Bad thoughts pollute mind, waste ink, paper and time. When the thought is there, writing doesn’t take me much. Used pen and paper previously, then had this second-hand Wellington typewriter and now a laptop. There is no routine. I write when I feel like writing and have perfect surrounding. Creativity is impulsive and not compulsive.

HR: Any artist has inspirations… or even influences…

SP: I read Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, Ahmad Ali and R. K. Narayan as a teenage. Of these R. K. Narayan is ineffaceable. In my own village, Malmoh, I see his Malgudi; so much so that I am insisting my publisher to name my next book as Malmohi Days (smiles).

HR: There is a widely accepted belief that everybody can’t be a writer…

SP: Yes, that is true. Sometimes even writers cease to be writers. That is writer’s block. I have experienced it a number of days and usually I would weep in that phase. You need to be emotional to be a writer; you have to

have a keen eye for detail, patience to listen to people and places, knack of talking to yourself and be a subject yourself which you are weaving your story around.

HR: Are you an ardent reader too?

SP: If a writer doesn’t read, he shouldn’t expect others to read him. It comes naturally. It has to come. Many writers think that if they read other writers their own scheme of thoughts would be displaced. The fact is such writers have no thoughts at all; they only have an alter ego. A writer has to let his imagination loose; there is a lot writers’ minds can accommodate, if only they let it do so. If you don’t read you end up being in your own hard shell. Reading

evolves you into a wholesome being; it helps you transgress boundaries of thoughts and takes you to infinite levels. To be at such a level is a great feeling. I get high on it. I love it.

HR: How does one pick up the habit of reading?

SP: One should read books of his interest. Picking up books at random and expecting yourself to read them is never going to happen. There is no hard and fast rule as to which books beginners must read; they must read what

interests them the most.

HR: Any favorite author?

SP: Many. But if you are talking of Indian writing in English, then there is no doubt about Jhumpa Lahiri. She just writes like me (laughs); oops, I mean I am trying to evolve like her. Her description of people, places and characters’ is magical.

HR: Writers are supposed to be solitary. You are away from Kashmir and living in a city that perhaps is not as serene as Kashmir…

SP: It is difficult. It has been so all these years. Surroundings have a profound effect on a writer’s mind. You can’t be expecting yourself to be writing about serenity of a snowfall while sweat drips your back in 48 degrees Celsius. To counter this territorial mismatch, it took me long to condition myself. Since all my writings are about Kashmir, I imagine myself roaming there, sitting on the shop front, chatting with friends and neighbours and weaving my words. It is an ethereal feeling since it helps me detach my soul from my body — it is a trance-like situation.

HR: Conflict in Kashmir has shattered our relations…

SP: People have stayed friends despite the conflict. One must have as much patience to listen as he has power to speak. We all want to speak; no one wants to listen. We have to listen to speak. I am an optimistic person; do

not have a reason to lack hope of revival. Let’s all listen, and then speak. Not just speak, not to listen.

HR: The Kashmir Pandits harbour a strong resentment against the local Muslims and there are Pandit organizations who spew venom against their fellow Muslims…

SP: You can’t even imagine how traumatic it is for one to lose his home, his roots, his family and friends. By friends I don’t mean only Pandits losing Pandit friends; I also mean Pandits losing Muslim friends too. And vice versa. Wherever resentment is brewing, it is not unfounded. But, as said above, both sides have to listen to each other; I am sure Muslims have as many wounds to show and tales of separation to narrate as Pandits have to.

HR: Rehabilitation of Pandits was Bharatiya Janata Party’s pre-election priorities…Do you see any hope?

SP: It was not a priority. It was a plank. Political parties are like third-rate pimps sitting on human skulls and riding their emotions. And how do you actually expect any Indian government rehabilitate more than 76,000 families, when it is not able to provide, say, for example, basic facility of healthcare to around 360,000 Indian villages, which is half of the total number of them it has. Better don’t ask me politics; I have little respect for Indian politics or

politicians.

HR: What would be your message to aspiring authors?

SP: Think in the language in which you want to write. Even if your writing is not so good in the beginning; it will evolve as your power to think in the desired language evolves. You lose the essence of a thought as you attempt to translate it; it should stay like a fresh bolus of butter just formed after churning buttermilk. Being a writer is just like being a milkman.

HR: Please explain?

SP: That is for readers and aspiring writers to think about. (Smiles)