Five Questions with Dr. Anita Nahal
SB Q1: A hearty welcome to Five
Questions! A great honour to have you here. Professor, poet, short story
writer, flash fictionist, higher education administrator, diversity &
inclusion consultant, chair yoga instructor, author of more than eleven books,
widely published in global journals, I am losing count. What else?
AN: Hahaha, and so says the prolific writer and multi-talented,
Santosh! Thank you so much, Santosh, for the opportunity and honor to be
interviewed by you for your blog!
SB: Multi-talented! Well...I just follow my passion and, strangely enough, seem to
be passionate about so many things…It is MY honour to interview a versatile
person of your caliber and multidimensionality.
AN: The honor is mine, Santosh to be interviewed by such a versatile writer such as yourself!
I have always been multi-dimensional in my
artistic, professional, and also community service interests. Humans are not
mono-dimensional, so why need be our interests and work? Right? I like to
dabble with every artistic genre that captures my eye, so to say. And within a
specific genre as well, let’s say poetry, I like to express in whichever way I
best can on whatever may catch my fancy. So, it could be free verse, prose,
rhyme, or haiku poetry, or in other genres such as flash fiction and stories,
or children’s writings or a novel. Also, time, space, and matter are not
constant or always in a continuum. String theory, Quantum Physics, or the relativity
of Albert Einstein are all very fascinating to me. We respond to different
scenarios in a plethora of ways we believe are useful for our wellbeing. The
end goals for me are the same…to express, to share, to remain busy, focused, to
help others and ourselves. We grow, I believe because our inner self is
intrigued, captivated when learning or expressing in constructive and new
ways. For example, when my son was only three or four years of age, I
thought why recite only known rhymes to him, so I started creating new ones,
also new short stories. Once I had written these, I thought why not try to see
if they’ll get published and maybe someone else might benefit. And thus, began
the journey of my children’s books. Life is cyclical and the more cycles we set
into motion, the more the outcomes, sometimes great, sometimes not so.
SB: Well, come to think of it, I also used to create nursery
rhymes for my daughter, some, I recall were rip-roaringly funny which would
send her into chortles of immense delight. Now listening to you, I think, I
should have written them down, alas, it is too late now. Spilt milk is
spilt, as you say.
AN: Yes, spilt milk has that kind of quality (smiling) However,
you can create new ones now. Never too late to reinvent oneself.
Even in my professional life, I’ve held several
positions in different countries, cities, and institution types. When I had no
job at a given time, I chose to get certified in new disciplines so that I
would be able to put to good, practical use my skill-sets, education, and life
experiences. And that’s how I became a diversity & inclusion
consultant.
Similarly, in community service, when I was living in Delhi, I used to volunteer my time with the Guild of Service in their street children program. This organization was founded by Mrs. Mohini Giri. My son would also devote his time to teaching little kids. When my son and I moved to the US, we continued our community service because giving forward or back, that’s the right thing to do. Be it in the finance, multicultural, or women’s county committees, be it in the school board, be it with Medicare, be it in diversity and inclusion, or education, we devote/d our time, knowledge, and experience helping others. Two years ago, I thought why not help older folks who can’t sit on the ground or those who have some health challenges through the practice of chair yoga. So, I did the certification, also did the CPR/AED certification, and bought insurance to make sure I was fully qualified to teach it. I taught for two years at Assisted Living residences for seniors prior to the pandemic and afterward free online for about eight months to friends and relatives. I think this philosophy was inculcated in me very early when my family and I moved to live in the US for the first time when I was barely a child. Americans are very passionate and dedicated to giving and volunteering.
SB: Wow! What impassioned intensity! Your passion is indeed a lesson for
those who plod through life with a lackluster gait, stooped shoulders, and dull
eyes, finding nothing new in the world around them – Yes, I have come across
many such people – and even youngsters, saying things to the effect, “Bore
go gayey hain zindagi sey”. “How can you get bored? There is such a lot
to be done in this short life”, I tell them. And here we have you- an
indefatigable and relentless worker! Hats off, once again to the Renaissance
Woman!
AN: Thank you so much, my dear! And yes, absolutely, how can we get
“bored”. Actually, we do, yet we want to push those thoughts away. You know two
expressions were banned by my parents---shut up and bored! Papa used to say
that, when you get angry say loudly, “keep quiet,” but shut up is disrespecting
someone. And bored, what, I don’t want to hear that word, instead say, I’m
feeling tired or not feeling like doing something but bored, no, no. Our
parents' sentences and actions linger with us. (smiling).
And, oh, yes, I’ve been lovingly called, a
renaissance woman, a phoenix, a humanist, mother of all humanity (my father’s
favorite title for me)…I suppose I am all those and more. I am constantly
taking up new challenges, new jobs, new writing projects, and I am forever
taking up cudgels for others, that’s why my father called me the mother of
humanity. One loses a lot of people along the way like that yet we follow our
calling and hopefully one sleeps well at night. I remember a poem in my first
volume, Initiations in which I had alluded to that. Here are the last
few lines of that poem, called Masks:
…gingerly I had put
my finger in the fire
burnt brown it came out
if only I had remembered
its sprightly movements were
but fluttering knives.
Yet, despite the hurt and pain, we still speak up. I am always thinking, self-reflecting, keeping the process going… to do, to change, to help others and myself. This is the only one life I am aware of in this “one-dimensional” world so to say that we know, so, do I wish to remain in one spectrum, or explore the endless possibilities in the infinite prism of life? At the bottom of all and every urn that I dig into for my emotional and physical wellbeing resources, I must, I must, maintain as much as I can, fairness for all. I err, like everyone else, but I always, always return to chastising myself more than others on what I lacked and consequently how I can improve, which brings us right back to human multi-dimensionality and the plethora of hats I choose to wear. I am always on a journey trying to decipher my destiny. Paulo Coelho said in The Alchemist, “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” I think, maybe so.
SB Q2: Tell us something about your first collection of poems, Initiations [Pitambar,
New Delhi, 1988], also your second collection of poems, Hey, Spilt milk
is spilt, nothing else [Authors Press, 2018]
AN: Both books came decades apart. Life happened. I see my
poetic style altering from shorter free verse in Initiations to
longer free verse and prose poems in Hey, Spilt milk is spilt, nothing
else. Initiations was my first book of poems published by the
excellent Pitamber house. Initiations was my rite of passage for my
young life, newly married life. And Hey…is another kind
of rite of passage…of a mature woman, a mother, having seen life. Yet,
in both, my passion for fairness and justice in the world around us, in private
and public places, is rooted, grounded, and prevalent.
In the second book, my themes cover a vast gamut
of human experiences, anxieties, and abuses that exist and persist in race,
immigration, domestic violence, unemployment, environment, aging, and so forth.
The title comes from my explicit acceptance that spilt milk is spilt. And while
we feel sad and need time to recover, yet we have no choice but to move on. In
some sense, I agree with Sartre’s existentialism, that the phenomena of being,
is critical to the understanding of our beliefs and actions. However, I bear
full responsibility for the impact of those on others. And so, if I dropped the
spilt milk, I must change my thinking and ways so as not to spill it again. And
if someone else drops milk, then I need to assess to what extent can I allow
their beliefs, words, and actions to impress upon me. Therefore, my
existentialism has layered realities, the conscious, the subconscious, and the
unconscious (Sigmund Freud), the freedom and the responsibility. I am
constantly, maybe even when sleeping, though not sure if my mind is in the
subconscious or unconscious state…quite confusing, yet, I think I’m dreaming of
all these things. I sleep with gratefulness and that lulls me to sleep. Maybe
my poems come from that state (smiling) for as you know, Stephen King says, “The
unconscious mind writes poetry if it's left alone.”
In Hey…. I also experimented with having a pencil line drawing for almost every poem. I am a visual learner, so I decided to give it expression in the book. I am delighted that this poetry book of mine and my first collection of flash fictions (Life on the Go-Flash fictions from New Delhi to America-2018) are both parts of a syllabus on multiculturalism at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. It’s extremely satisfying to be part of something that gives a writer a long shelf life.
SB: Well, that speaks volumes about your sincerity,
passion, and commitment. Hats off to that.
AN: Thank you, Santosh! I have mostly been a non-traditionalist and that’s inherently visible in my poems whether in the first or second book and also in my forthcoming third book about which I shall share a bit later. People say think outside the box, I feel, there is no need for a box (smiling). This reminds me of a poem from my second book titled after Tracee Ellis Ross’s Ted talk, A woman’s fury holds lifetimes of wisdom. Below are a few lines:
I am not a bherchaal (crowd
follower)
I look beyond the box which I
know is there, even if it is in my mind
My heart
My soul
Step
Style
My tears
Laughter
Exasperations
My pleadings
Denials
My dreams…
Some may not understand how I
think far out
Too beyond the box
Maligning me
Laughing
Sniggering
Dismissing
Ignoring.
But my box is
already behind me
While you are still looking at yours scratching your head!
I am also beginning to write surrealist poems
for my fourth volume of poetry. In some of my previous books, one may find
specks of surrealism here and here, yet the new volume I have begun writing,
will have all surrealist poems. Fingers crossed; I hope I can do
justice to that style.
SB Q3: Bravo! It is indeed very nice to know that your
father Dr. Chaman Nahal, a Sahitya Akademi award-winning novelist and professor
had briefly joined the English Department of Rajasthan University, Jaipur,
where my father also taught. Tell us something about your father’s much-
talked about works on Mahatma Gandhi. I remember having read The
Silver Lining. Was this a fictional twist to an incident that he had
himself encountered in life?
AN: Thank you! Yes, my father taught in Jaipur before
joining the University of Delhi from where he also retired. My
father was a very creative and ingenious person and a prolific writer. I
learned most of my best practices in writing from him. From my mother, also a
Ph.D. in English and principal of a school in Delhi, I learned resilience and
patience. And both insisted my sister and I be strong and fearless. That
fearlessness seeps into his writings as well. His The Gandhi Quartet (1993)
is a collection of four novels, the last being Azadi which he
actually wrote first and then went back time-wise and wrote the rest. He was
convinced in Gandhian philosophy and methodologies of non-violence to achieve
desired results, in this case, freedom from the British. My father was born in
Sialkot and my mother in Lahore and both families like hundreds of thousands of
others had to flee to the other side of the border. Their families and those of
others painstakingly created new, patched lives in a land they did not know,
new India, (or new Pakistan for those going the other way) yet nationally,
notionally and emotionally my parents felt belonged, to the mitti,
the soil. So, the fourth novel in The Gandhi Quartet though
written first, Azadi, (1975) was born from the agonizing duality of
freedom (life) and division (dying), metaphorically and in reality. That novel
won him the Sahitya Akademi award in 1977, and also the Federation of Indian
Publishers’ award (1977). I think Mahatma Gandhi captivated my father’s
imagination, so he devoted the next almost twenty years to writing the three
other novels of the series. The title of each was based upon Gandhiji’s three
movements. So, you have, The Crown and the Loincloth (1981), The
Salt of Life (1990), The Triumph of the Tricolour (1993),
and together they were released as, The Gandhi Quartet (1993).
My father has shown Gandhi as one of us, one of everyone, with the same
failings, that trouble and hound us, while still being unique.
Ah, about The Silver Lining, which I
adore, and which you might know is in the syllabus of many school textbooks in
India. I really don’t know. He was a writer so…(smiling)
SB Q4: I see that two anthologies, one
co-edited with Roopali Sircar Gaur, Earth Fire Water Wind, and
the Nursery Rhymes anthology, co-edited with Dr. Meenakshi Mohan have just hit
the market, and I see Authorspress has once again done an excellent job with
both the books. Indeed, beautifully crafted books. Hats off once again. Tell us
something about them.
AN: Thank you so much! Yes, these anthologies are beautifully done.
Yay…shout out for Authorpress under the leadership of Sudarshan Kcherry. These
two followed one more that I co-edited also with Dr. Roopali Sircar Gaur last
year, In All the Spaces-Diverse Voices in Global Women’s Poetry.
All three have been a labor of love for the craft of poetry and for bringing
poets of myriad diversities together in one book. From thought to production,
working on three anthologies in the last few years has been quite the juggling
act...all hit the market between July 2020 and February 2021! The poetry
anthologies I co-edited with Roopali had as their central focus creativity that
addressed various themes written by women poets (first one), or the elements of
earth, fire, water, and wind by poets of all identifications (the second one).
We had 23 poets in the first one and 80 poets in the second one representing
varied nationalities, countries, genders, races, and religions, among other
diversities such as age. Our youngest poets being in their teens and our oldest
poets being in their eighties.
The third anthology, Nursery rhymes and
children’s poems from around the world you may not have heard was the
realization of my dream to bring together new nursery rhymes. When my son was a
child as I mentioned above, I started to write new stuff for children which was
published in three children’s books in 1993 by Vikas-Madhuban. When I discussed
the idea with Dr. Meenakshi Mohan, also a children’s writer, poet, and painter,
it took shape.
So, yes, I am very grateful that I have the
opportunity and capacity to write and then bring other writers to work together
with, or/and include in anthologies. I am thankful for friends who are
like-minded and have the same dreams and goals. A shout out here for my
son, Vikrant, who is my blessing and guiding light. I am a single mom and the
journey with him has been a friendship that is the best a mom could pray
for. Besides my parents, he’s been the one to encourage me, to help me find my
voice, my path, my courage. It’s because we have family who supports and
inspire us that writers can ever get the time and peace to write.
SB Q5: Yes, indeed, a supportive family is what keeps one going and
traversing new terrains. You have traveled to 19 countries, are a polyglot, and
also love to dance. What a versatile genius! Kudos! Yes, you have also
completed your first novella. We would love to know something about it and the
other projects in the pipeline.
AN: Oh, yes, travelling is in the family genes (smiling). When
my father received a Fulbright to come to Princeton University in 1967, he
decided he wasn’t going to leave his wife and kids behind. So, from a very
early age, we started travelling with my parents. And then when I grew up and
became a lecturer at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, I also
started applying for workshops and conferences, and then I too received a
Fulbright in 1997, exactly thirty years after my father, and then I too decided
I wasn’t going leave my son behind. Combined in all, the travels in my
childhood, in my son’s childhood, and also much later, led us to 19 countries
and numerous cities!
Oh, I am not a Polyglot as all four languages I
speak, many Indians do…English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. I also remember a bit
of the French I learned along the way.
Haha, yes, I love dancing. It’s a physical
representation of our emotions, heart, and soul. For me, dance is the language
of the body and soul. As Martha Graham
said, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” I know many Indian
folk dances, and I learned Bharat Natyam for three years, also learned ballet
when I was a child, and later, hip hop, salsa, free dancing all just came
naturally to me. Above all, I also look upon it as a great form of exercise. I
still try to dance three to four times a week, blasting the music in the house
and letting go. As they say, dance like no one is watching (smiling).
See, for me all things I do, I do with intent.
Nothing comes haphazardly, except for the mistakes, the errors, the gloomy
parts of our lives. Dancing, writing, cooking, spending time with my family and
friends, with our furry family member, a golden doodle, and my university
teaching which I still do…am faculty at the University of the District of
Columbia, Washington DC…or the yoga I do, the chair yoga I teach, the diversity
and inclusion workshops I give…anything that I do is an outward manifestation
of my attempt to make sure I fill my soul and heart with a sea of positivity,
and to remain present, to impact the process of my life’s movement and
especially those close to me, in turn hoping to have a domino effect on others
for betterment. I hope that folks remember me for the positivity and goodness I
bring to them, inspiring them in some way. Here I echo Misty Copeland's words
when she talks about dancing that she hopes people, “…will remember a
positive feeling.”
I truly believe that we came to this world for a
much larger reason than birthing, growing up, working, marrying, procreating,
and dying. A larger reason is to touch the ermine of the cosmos and
try to be swept into its circles and passages which in turn maybe, just maybe,
can in one moment in time, matter and space connect us with this planet’s soul
so that our future generations will live a more peaceful life than we have. I
am reminded of a Native American proverb. It goes like this, “Everything on
the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a
mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.” ~ Mourning Dove Salish.
Therefore, the intent with which I do my daily tasks and my creativities, are
all part of that larger planning to keep this Earth going for myself and
others. That was way off the tangent, however, I needed to say all that
SB: Well, frankly speaking, it was not off the tangent. We needed to
know all this to pick up a few of the positive vibes that you emanate. How I
wish I could dance too! Reading your answers I almost started believing that
your positivity could make one with two left feet dance too! [Haha]
AN: Oh…you are so kind. Well,
coming back to my current and forthcoming projects, you will be pleased to know
that my third book of poetry, What’s wrong with us Kali women, has
been accepted by the fabulous and thoughtful
American publishing house, Kelsay Books with a release date of December
2021. I am absolutely over the moon and deeply grateful to God. My third book
is entirely composed of prose poems. Again, the themes I cover, have a common
thread and emote universality about injustices.
Also, in December 2020, a revised version of my
nursery rhyme books from 1993 was published in India by Authorspress and in
the US by Politics and Prose, DC. The title is, Cashew, Vashew and
other Nursery Rhymes.
Yes, I have completed my novel, one that I have
been writing for I don’t know how many years (smiling). I finally approved
the fourteenth draft! If I don’t love my writing who else would (smiling). I
am in search of an agent or a publisher now. It’s written partly in prose and
partly in Onegin style poetry, one in which Pushkin wrote and then Vikram Seth
in his The Golden Gate. The novel is a journey of a single
immigrant mom who leaves India with her young son for a calmer and more
peaceful life. And again, bigger-than-us themes that question and define our
humanity are found in my novel as well. I have also started my fourth poetry
book and at least three more children’s books. That should keep me creatively
busy for the next few years. (smiling).
SB: What an intriguing literary journey you have been traversing! I have filched a few bright beams from your creative journey and hope to teach myself few things. Thanks a ton for sharing these inspiring nuggets from your enchanting, creative life. We will talk again. All the best for your upcoming projects.
AN: Thank you so much, Santosh. Oh, that’s so
sweet…we all learn from each other. Thank you so much for interviewing me for
your blog. I loved your five questions for me. I am honored you thought of
including me in your literary conversations on your blog. And all the best for
your projects as well.
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