His new book of poetry, A Different Story, has just been published by Poetrywala. He has previously written two books of poetry, Vital Signs and River Wedding, which was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2023.

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Congratulations on your latest book of poetry. Could you tell us a bit about it?

Thank you! ‘A Different Story’, as the name suggests is poetry in stories, or stories in poetry, whichever you prefer. I play with the genre a bit, make it desi and global south. I don’t provide notes on Kumar Gandharva’s Nirbhay Nirgun, for example, and those who want to know can find out about Vinod Kumar Shukla and Shamshur Rahman Faruqi as well.  I experiment with the lyric narrative, because I don’t see the lyric and the narrative as antithetical to each other. As an organising principle, I use the nine rasas of Indian aesthetics because it’s a big book: 250 pages of heart and mind and soul. I liberate myself from the clutches of the various isms that are taught in theory.  But once the book is out, it’s in the hands of the reader to make of it what she will!

What sparked your interest in poetry, and how have you nurtured it alongside your work in law all these years?

Poetry is the highest form of language. Only music and dance surpass it. I have always been interested in language. I love a beautiful line. I have been writing poetry for a while, but decided to publish my work only after my daughter was born. One day, I was sitting in front of a computer and wondering how my daughter would know me, if she never read a single poem of mine.  And so, the trail of publishing started about ten years back – magazines, journals, books, here and abroad. Now, interviews like this one. But one always goes back to the blank page.

Law and poetry are just different modes of perception. They are not so different, since both engage with language, but in different ways. Both come from their own tradition. Poetry is wilder, appealing more to the senses, to feeling; law moves into the realm of logic and cognition. Poetry does that as well, though in a different way. It’s not as Dionysian and Apollonian as one imagines it to be. Poetry makes the mysterious palpable, and law makes the palpable mysterious!

What does your role at IIHS entail? What do you find rewarding and challenging about it?

I am fortunate to be part of IIHS from the beginning. It’s great to be part of an exciting and committed team of people who have built the institution from scratch to where it is now. IIHS is a very different kind of knowledge institution because it is interdisciplinary, committed to practice and stretches the theoretical envelope in many ways. It encourages innovation and is committed to the public good.   

I lead the Legal & Regulatory team, which entails the entire gamut of work along thorny legal issues, apart from strategic institutional oversight. I also work on regulatory policy, the type of work courtroom lawyers don’t get to do.  I have worked on constitutional aspects, written on higher education, on urban and land governance, on urban decentralisation and so on. It’s nice that I am doing things I have always wanted to do. A different story, I guess. Challenges, yes, where there is no path, you have to create one and then figure out how to walk on it. Not easy, but fun! If you like adventure, a sense of larking, it’s that kind of journey. In my Inlaks interview, I was asked what I wanted to do when I came back. This is what I wanted to do, and I am proud to be doing it.  

Could you share some of the lessons you’ve gleaned on your professional journey, both in law and writing, so far?

Keep at it. One day it becomes you. People won’t and don’t understand. Sometimes, the rewards come, sometimes they don’t. The work should move you. Poetry is also practice and one doesn’t get there in a single day because of a burst of inspiration. If you stop reading, you will stop writing. If you sit back and think you have arrived, in law or in poetry, that’s the beginning of the end. Look beyond the obvious towards what is interesting; then grind it out and do it from a sense of pride and respect. It will start loving you back.

What next? What themes would you like to explore through your poetry going forward?

Now that’s a tough one! I am playing around with a few ideas in my head. One is a modern adaptation of ancient folk tales, in a contemporary urban world far different from the original setting. Another is a bunch of sonnets about a father and son, where initially the father speaks, and then the son, and so on. Then there are thoughts of putting together a collection about Connaught Place in Delhi, but perhaps that needs more work.

I am increasingly beginning to ask questions of the way poetry is taught in school, in textbooks and so on. So dull, drab and alien. Poetry is about us, in the everyday. It is meaning. It is truth. It should be able to write truth or at least the manner of receiving truth in some interesting way. It should make people sit up and wonder. People should ask: hmm, what is that?

IIHS is now a distinct university offering cutting edge interdisciplinary degree programmes. This is a new and exciting phase in its journey. How can we build this up further, without compromising on quality and content; how to inspire more people to be part of the journey and make people believe things are possible.  How to do this every day, so that one day we can look back and say: we did something! I guess that should be a handful for now!