OT What does travel mean to you
Keki N. Daruwalla A new place, a different monument and another river or lake is always fascinating. I gazed with awe when I first saw the Brahmaputra. Why not And dont you enjoy the trees sliding by like a sliding panel as the train moves Doesnt everyone want a window seat
OT Does poetry inspire you to travel Or vice versa
Keki N. Daruwalla Neither. Travel often meant a poem, like my visit to Amroha or the Baltic islands. Not much now. A travel poem cant be a sketch alone. It needs a twist at the end, or a metaphor to back it, to keep it afloat.
OT Talk a bit about your new short-story collection, Daniell Comes to Judgment, by Niyogi Books.
Keki N. Daruwalla It started off with a story resulting from my reading of the 18th-century painter, Daniell, and his brother. It is a story about the art world today, the soaring pricesand it is also a story about floods, the vulnerability of single women and even sex. A story doesnt need to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It can be about a mood. Thats what I have tried to portray in my latest book. There are old stories too. Theres even a story about triple talaq, written before its time, if one can say so.
OT Youve been called a landscape poet. Which landscapes have had an impact on your poetry
Keki N. Daruwalla All landscapes have had an effect on my poetry, starting with the hillsGarhwal and Kumaon, the stark landscape of Joshimath. But the lovely Ranikhet did not lead to a poem. However, the intense blue of Verinag and also the blue of Sheshnag glacier did lead to poems. In fiction, I like to describe a place, a street, a scarecrow by a village pond.
OT A travel anecdote that you wish to share
Keki N. Daruwalla In 1989, I drove around Europe with my family. Coming out of Naples in Italy, we lost our way a bit and I told my daughter Anaheita who was sitting beside me with a map that we seem to be entering mafia country. Right enough, as we stopped at a wayside gas station, a boy smashed his fist through the window and snatched my wifes purse, before riding away. We reported to the police, patched up the window and proceeded to Rome. I wrote a jingle later
A lovely place is Napoli
Of rolling hill and sun and sea
And also of the Mafiosi.
OT Where is your poetry appreciated the most
Keki N. Daruwalla I find the audience more receptive at book launches at Kitabkhana, Mumbai.
OT Whats your idea of an ideal vacation
Keki N. Daruwalla Firstly, the family should be with you. Secondly, you shouldnt be running frenetically from site to site, lake to river and boat-ride. You should have a decent book with you, and a pad to scribble something on.