ON POEMS THAT FORAY INTO VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE PANDEMIC

Author Interview: Kaustabh Kashyap

Kaustabh Kashyap is a NET-JRF awardee in English Literature and is presently pursuing PhD in Health Humanities. He currently lives in his hometown Guwahati, Assam. He is a freelance translator and has contributed fiction, poetry and articles for national magazines and e-journals, and his works have appeared in the Reading Hour, Vayavya, The Assam Tribune and Erothanatos. He has recently come out with his first poetry collection, “The Night Won't Wait: Glimpses of the Great Pause”. In a candid chat with Chirdeep Malhotra, he talks about his book, his writing journey, his favourite books and authors, and much more. Read on!



Please tell us more about Kaustabh Kashyap as a person.

Like a badly written sentence, I flounder at self-descriptions! Although I would like to say I am a patient and persistent word-weaver, tapping into the waters of the real world and imbuing them with the palette of my vivid imagination. When I am not reading and writing, I sink into nature’s therapeutic lap or spend time with dogs. I also like a bit of country and jazz. And the company of creative, compassionate folks.



Has writing always been a part of your life? Or did you chance upon it later on and then instantly fell in love with it?

Writing has always been the echo of my restless, curious mind. Ever since I was at the threshold of puberty, playing with words, making them pointed arrows or gentle flowers – there’s little else that compares with that feeling.



Please tell us more about your book “The Night Won’t Wait: Glimpses of the Great Pause”.

“The Night Won’t Wait” is a book of verses, painstakingly born out of the chaotic period of lockdown that ensued in India and worldwide last year when the fear of coronavirus brought everybody down on their knees. The twenty-four poems in the collection (humbly) seek to bring into sharp focus the myriad impacts of the pandemic on the fragility of human life.



What inspired you to write this book?

Instead of wringing my hands and drowning myself in fear and misery, I did what I naturally do in times of distress – pick up the pen. Initially, I must confess, there was no plan of a book. But as I began scribbling down about the terrifying scenes I witnessed on the news or read in the papers, an inadvertent, organic pattern emerged. This translated into the poems that became the book.
I wouldn’t entirely call it inspiration. It was rather an inner compulsion to put into words, my inexplicable anger and grief at the stark images of the pandemic.



Can you talk more about the themes that you have explored in this poetry book?

Thanks to my sharp-eyed editor Pranab Kr Bora, the book has been logically arranged according to a thematic cohesion. The pandemic is the major trope within which several topical issues have been explored. Loneliness, entrapment, depression, environmental degradation, sexual orientation – these are some of the key subjects in the text.
Basically, the book’s perceptible undertow is the poetic expose of the divide between ‘the haves and the have nots’, as much as it is a meditation on human suffering. Be it physical or psychological. There is also a philosophical questioning of mankind’s myopic vision and an interrogation of questions of hope and survival that haunt all of us in calamitous times such as these.



Which poets have you been reading during the pandemic? What role do you think poetry can play during these times?

I have always turned to Emily Dickinson, TS Eliot and Sylvia Plath during troubling times. But this new, petrifying road that the pandemic has carved out for us to stagger through, has made me especially look for poetry centred around illness and suffering.
Jane Kenyon, Hieu Minh Nguyen, George Bowering and James Langlas – these are a few of the poets I have been reading who explore humanely, the pain and fragility of our mortality.
Poetry can certainly hold a mirror, howsoever fragmented, to our times. It has always been the poets, writers, thinkers who have signalled as well as instilled changes within the socio-cultural paradigms. But on the face of grotesque reality such as this one, it has its limitations too.



Nowadays, poetry is being shared on various social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. What do you think about this new phenomenon of “Instapoets” which is changing the face of poetry?

Although I have my reservations, I still believe that social media platforms have democratized the traditional writing space. Anybody anywhere across the globe, with internet access and love for the written word, can put one’s thoughts into words and immediately find an audience. The gargantuan, literary gatekeepers who once decided the binaries between literariness and non-literariness, and could reject new voices outright, are forced into rethinking publishing practices.
But one must accede to the pitfalls of the digital space too. Poetry, for me, is a personal, calming experience. I wouldn’t be so comfortable moulding my verses, solely on the demands of the market and for garnering likes and shares!



Can you recommend books from any genre, for our readers to add to their reading lists, that you particularly cherish?

I would be happy to. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, “Maurice” by E.M. Forster, “The Shadow Lines” by Amitav Ghosh, “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy and “Lunatic in My Head” by Anjum Hasan are a few of my eternal favourites I keep going back to, when I seek inspiration or comfort.



What are your other interests apart from writing?

I like swimming, playing chess and taking long walks especially at the break of dawn. Although the pandemic has imposed restrictions in most of the outdoor activities I usually enjoy.
I occasionally enjoy baking and cooking. Sometimes I also dabble with the paintbrush and come up with spectacularly amateur art.



What are you working on next? Any exciting new projects our readers should look out for?

Ah! They say never play all your cards at once. Keep people guessing.
I am drafting a novel. It is still quite nascent and basic. The skeleton without the flesh. If it progresses in the manner I have envisaged, it will most probably be a young adult tale about self-discovery, peppered with secrets. It will most certainly include Christmas!
There are few academic projects on my plate as well. These however are linked with my PhD which the pandemic is making all the more difficult to proceed as expected.



There are many new writers and poets who are aspiring to get their work published. What would you say to them?

This is such an important question. It can be answered in myriad ways.
Firstly, I believe, it is important to understand how we think and write, and what truly interests us. We need to be consistent and build routines to improve our writing skills. Budding writers and poets must equally devote daily hours to reading what suits them, also looking outside their comfort zones.
Writing is a lonely, private experience, but all the more pleasurable and fruitful if you love crafting unique, authentic sentences, longing to be heard outside your solitary drafts and scribbles. I tend to think of whatever trivial or significant I write, like children of my imagination. They need constant care and attention. Feedback is no less important.
Once one has mastered the mechanics of writing, one must be ready for disappointments and rejection letters. Unless one is really lucky. Read up on JK Rowling’s initial failures at finding a publisher for her Harry Potter series. You will know what I mean.
But that’s no reason to sulk or stop the flow of ink, isn’t it? One writes because one is compelled to. Also, there are plenty of publishers in the book market at present. Often one receives rejection(s), not because one’s writing lacks spark, but because one is pitching the work to an agent/publisher with a different set of interests.
Writing also needs ample revising and rewriting. One must never be satisfied in this Sisyphean endeavour. If all this can be accomplished, I see no reason why one wouldn’t be accepted and thrust into the literary world of fame and money. Maybe I am overly optimistic, who knows?



Can you share with our readers a motivational quote that keeps you going?

Certainly. I really like this quote – “Be brave to stand for what you believe in even if you stand alone.” (Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart)