T.S.Chandra Mouli: Thank you very much for sparing your precious time for this interview.

Indira Babbellapati: I am happy to share my views with you.

TSCM: How and when did you start writing poetry?

IB: That’s an interesting question however clichéd it may sound as far as I’m concerned. When I look back, I’m intrigued at how my tryst with poetry began. I wrote my first verse not really knowing I was into writing. And it happened in English. Yes, poetry happens to me. I now joke that some English spirit stopped by and wrote that 12 line verse on love choosing me as a medium when I was just 13. I say this because I didn’t know a word of English then.    

TSCM: Please tell us something about your childhood, studies etc.

IB: Well, I had been a very self-conscious child. Not that I’m not one now! When I look at my childhood, all I can say is I had my share of fears. I was nervous. But I had this congenital bubbly nature in spite of all those paralyzing fears. Could be that it’s my defence! Ours was a large extended family with a huge brood of aunts, uncles, cousins coming and going. Besides, there were always some guests or the other. There would always be food ready for at least two more every day! There’re occasions when a family or two lived with us for at least a year! Trust me, amidst so many, I was a loner seeped in my own fantasies, fears and a world of heightened imagination. Childhood experiences are very strong in all of us. I believe that famous statement of Marquis—all that’s to happen in my life happened by the time I was seven and the rest is an action replay! I still remember the first smell my system absorbed. First discernible fear. First touch. First taste. Somehow, as life grows thicker and fixes us in its carefully arranged blocks, these unadulterated(?) sensitivities get buried deep within. It’s my source of creativity. My formal schooling never really supported me emotionally. I hated going to school—that went up to college—and would feign some illness or the other! School always considered me an intelligent student and that put me under more pressure because I  didn’t know what it’s to be intelligent. It made me feel awkward. Never vied to be a topper. Competition put me off. I understood my childhood and the burden of growing up seeing my son grow! Let me tell you…growing up is no fun! It’s a painful process. I had all my education in the vernacular. The way my neighbouring children spoke English would always make me feel left out alone in a world I failed to come to terms with. Even today, I can’t come to terms with the world and maybe the reason why I created a counter world of poetry for my self-preservation. You will gain entry into this world of mine when you read my poetry.

TSCM: What are your concerns as a poet, ma’am?

IB: My concerns? To me writing poetry is strictly an affair of the heart beyond the existential concerns of the here and now.  My emotions and concerns are those of an average individual. My language is so simple that even an eighth grader can understand comfortably though not comprehend the full intent. If I can make at least one reader strike commonality with my verses, I feel fulfilled. My concerns hence are to reach out to the world to strike that one-ness of human experience. That’s why whenever I was asked this question all that I say is, to give an honest expression to what stirs my heart, so that some heart somewhere is stirred! I believe in straight and simple expression without any trappings. Words should flow spontaneously. My profession demands simplifying thought as I deal with teenagers. That must have contributed to my simple verse and my concern that poetry, the universal expression of emotion should be as simple as possible.

TSCM: What perceptible influences are there on your poetry?

IB: I’m afraid not really any! However, just as any first experience stays put in our mind, Wordsworth’s ‘Solitary Reaper’ and Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustum’ have developed an aura of mysticism and certain inquisitiveness towards poetry. This kind of question to somebody like me is a difficult one to answer for basically any human experience, especially  the pathos of it, touches my heart and once the heart is touched, it forces itself out of my system. I’ve no control over it. I’m not a contemplative type. The world and human experience are the most influencing factors on my poetry. I can confidently say life at large and my observations of the world are the major influencing factors. I’m not influenced by any isms or a particular school of thought or any poet for that matter.

TSCM: Do you feel social consciousness or ideological approach are necessary for a poet? Could you elaborate?

IB: Social consciousness is so in built in every individual…we all are somehow connected somewhere. So where is the question of segregating social concerns from life? Look, as far as ideology is concerned, each of us have a small space untouched in us. That’s from where one’s ideology springs from. Since all of us possess that space, we are all idealists. I personally feel thus all of us are poets. Some put it on paper while others write on their heart! Those dubbed as poets and artists throw their madness on to the world and others contain within themselves. Where does the need for a particular approach arise in my scheme? Whether or not one believes in idealism, it’s an integral part of every life.

TSCM: How do you employ images and symbols in your poetry?

IB: I don’t consciously employ any symbols or images. When the emotion starts flowing, the images or symbols find their own place and fit themselves accordingly. At such moments of creativity, something seen a decade ago or experienced as a child may make way into the process. That’s how my choice of images or symbols is not a conscious one.

TSCM: What are the recurring themes and images, ma’am? Could you give a few examples, please?

IB: Love, moonlight, sea, monsoon, seasons, earth, death, subtleties of nature are some of the recurring images in my poetry. There’re any number of poems with these images. I published two anthologies—thanks to my friends who put them all together for me and took reins of the publication part—one on love that I called “affaire de coeur” and the other on sea, “Vignettes of the Sea.” Yes, sea is a very influencing image that creeps into my scheme. After dropping my son at school on my way home, I would stop at a particular vantage point and wrote most of my sea poems. There’re also poems I wrote on human relationships with these images dominating the emotion. Man-woman relationship still intrigues me. It’s an eternal gender game. These images form the background of these poems too.

TSCM: Do you feel poetry festivals or meets promote poetic creativity? Are they relevant at all?

IB: They help to the extent of bringing like minded people together for an exchange of ideas. I don’t see anything beyond for the act of creation is an intensely personal one.

TSCM: As a poet what is your view of the prevailing scenario?

IB: It makes me happy to see many writing poetry without inhibition and with spontaneity. The spate of online poetry sites are of great help for all poets to confidently express themselves. And I feel it’s a very encouraging sign. I myself could write so much poetry because of these sites. The advantage is immediate publication and feed-back. Quick feed-back does motivate one to write, refine and feel good about what is written. What I mean is assured readership does a great deal good to any writer may s/he be a poet or a playwright or a short story writer. Definitely poetry is here to stay.

TSCM: What are the trends you could notice in post- independence Indian English poetry?  Which trends have gained ground now? What is conspicuous now?

IB: I remember to have received Gauri Deshpande’s anthology as a gift when an elderly uncle saw poetic vibes in me when I was a thirteen-year old. After that I read a little bit of R. Parthsarathy. I feel post-independent India is bolder and more confident in its expression and choice of themes. We now write for ourselves. For our voice to be heard louder and clearer to ourselves. I don’t know if I answered your question…

TSCM: Have you tried your hand at other genres of writing?

IB: I tried my hand at short story though I haven’t published anywhere. As a translator, yes, I attempted all the genres except drama. My translation of a full length anthology of a modern Telugu poet into English is expected anytime from Sahitya Akademi.

TSCM: How do you relate yourself to writing?

IB: Well, writing poetry is something I can’t think as outside myself. Whatever touches me has to be expressed. I’m glad poetry chose me because the other genres know pretty well that my expression can’t be contemplative and that it has to come in one go! I’m a very impatient person, you see. Sometimes these poems come to me in a spate…I would end up hearing the crows and raise my head! These days I enjoy writing collaborative poetry on the web.

TSCM: What inspires you to write?

IB: How can I answer this…hmm, what inspires me and when I can never say! Even a street dog howling in pain or surrounded by male dogs stirs me! A chance expression on a passing face too goes into my poetry! I still remember how one evening waiting in my car for my sister to return from the shop, I chanced upon two women and a man into ‘bargaining.’ A poem “By the side-walk” happened in less than 3 minutes. It got scribbled on a piece of soiled news paper that I picked up from the road side! It can happen after a soft hand-shake or in the middle of my meditation or sleep. Many poems happened in my dreams. I call them surreal poems. The peculiar thing about them is, once they begin on a particular note, they go on the same theme for the next 50 or a hundred. I’ve Night Poems, Just Once…, From the biography of an unknown woman,  From the banks of Ganga, On the path to enlightenment and many more. Recently, the trend seems to be erotica and what just started with one, four days ago, now touched 25! So what exactly influences me, I wonder.

TSCM: Can you say more about your process of writing poetry?

IB: Hmm…it has its own method. You know I write only free verse. I’m only a medium! I call it methodical madness…such varied moods and emotions! If I were to be involved as an individual with all these, I might have ended up at the psychiatrist! Poetry to me too is a journey within…it made me realize and light the darker niches of my self. It can’t be contained within a structure. It creates its own. It never expresses in rhyme. O, how I dislike sound overriding emotion! The lines arrange by themselves and a pattern emerges by itself. If there’s any structure I consciously employed, it’s the haiku/senryu. But here too the syllables come on their own. Very rare that I consciously count the syllables. Once or twice I toyed with waltz wave form. I do write ekphrastic poetry. But then these forms are only to test my patience; what the heart expresses, loses its intensity and spirit when consciously put in a structure. Emotion gets diluted. Not that I undermine those who write with due consideration to technique…it has its unique charm!

TSCM: What is your message to budding poets?

IB: Just keep writing! With no inhibition!

TSCM: Thank you very much for sharing your views and experiences with us. We look for many more inspiring volumes of poetry from you.

IB: Thank you…my pleasure!