'English language poetry in India is in safe hands'

A former police officer who served as special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and special assistant to former prime minister Charan Singh, Daruwalla’s background has been rather unusual for a poet.

Now retired, the Sahitya Akademi award-winning author, has recently come out with a new collection of short stories ‘Love Across the Salt Desert.’ He spoke to Devika Sequeira of Deccan Herald.
Excerpts:
You spent over 40 years in the police force and the intelligence wing. Did you see yourself as a police officer who wrote poetry or as a poet who happened to be a cop?
It’s hard to say; one doesn’t start defining one’s identity to oneself. I worked very hard at my job — whether in the police doing field work or on the desk as an analyst in Intelligence, and I had very heavy desks to handle.

One also thought of oneself as a poet. But I have never been too conscious or self conscious about my own identity—possibly because I have never taken myself (or others) too seriously.

From ‘Under Orion’ — published over four decades ago — to your ‘Collected Poems’, how has your work changed over the years?
The changes are not too obvious — though I, of course,  notice them. On the one hand,   ‘Under Orion’ contains the seed of all my later poetry — my strong interest in myth and de-mythification, the early preoccupation with the violence around me, the attempt to untangle problems of art, craft and writing which I would face, my interest in mountains etc.

My poetry also dealt with a sort of hands-on reality in my first book. Since then my poems hopefully have become more introspective and contemplative. There is also a greater calm about them, having looked at other writers — Mandelstam, Roethke to quote just two, and translated a bit — Faiz, Eluard. My poetry is turning more personal and slightly inward-looking now.

Your collection of short stories ‘Love Across the Salt Desert’ is just out. Did you find it less challenging than writing a novel? Why is there such a limited market for short stories in India?
Short stories come easy — though initially I had to struggle and put too much weight on the plot. Novel is a totally different kettle of fish. It took me five years of research to manage that one. One studied the voyages of Vasco da Gama, Portuguese and Spanish history — I even quoted the Papal Bulls — 3 of them verbatim, studied the Mamlukes — for I placed the pilot who guided Vasco, in Cairo.

Pepper and Christ was shortlisted for the Commonwealth prize for UK-Asia. Were you pleased with the response it got?
Yes, it was shortlisted all right for UK and Asia…So was Amit Chaudhuri’s novel. But no one gave it any publicity — not media, certainly not publishers — they never do. And the organisers of the event at Delhi — mostly Aussies, behaved as if we didn’t exist.

You said recently that finding a suitable publisher had been a frustrating experience. Has the publishing scenario changed very much since the 1970s?
I am not sure if I am the right person to ask. When one has published a few poetry books, the attitude of publishers changes. Still even very respected and established poets like Adil Jussawala or Eunice de Souza are not approached by any of the ‘recognised’ or shall we say commercial publishers, asking for their poetry. Which, if you ask me, is a bit of a shame. Kamala Das also often self-published — ‘A Summer in Calcutta’, her ‘Collected Poems’ were all self-published, whatever Writers’ Workshop may say.

I must mention one fine exception. Ravi Singh of Penguin (a wonderful editor) extended me the courtesy of coming to my house and asking for my collected poems. I don’t think this is ever going to happen again in the sandy desert of our publishing scene.

What are your views on the English language poetry scene today? Are there promising young people out there?
The scene is very promising — you just have to read Jeet Thayil’s anthology. Jeet himself, Ranjit Hoskote, Arundhathi Subramanian, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Sridala Swamy, Imtiaz Dharker, Meena Alexander, Manohar Shetty, Anand Thakore are all very fine poets — many of them very established and recognised internationally, as they should be. Language becomes soft clay in their hands, something alive and sinuous.

Given the levels of corruption in public life, would you choose a career in the Indian Police Service if you had to make the choice today?
No.