Poetry has been read, explained, defined, researched , criticized and sometimes understood over time immemorial; in simple words, this author shares his thoughts and emotions. Happiness, dejection, alienation, freedom, captivity, betrayal, confusion and love are all here in this collection of poetry, “I Said With Meraki “ This collection of poems reflects the poet’s perceptions and expresses the many emotions the ordinary person feels and that the poet has experienced over a lifetime. He has tried to express in words all these things for the reader who has felt them, but not found a way to express them , just gazes helplessly at the impressions of the wheels that life has left on the endless dusty road. Despite his title, the author speaks in the words of the average person through the simple lines of his poems. You will not find herein inexplicable metaphors detached from reality or a jumbled word collage that requires the reader to create the sense that the poet failed to instill into his creation. This author has created rhythm woven with words which will resonate with the reader. He connects reality with virtuosity, imagination with realism, antique relics with modern uniformity, and infinity with the almighty, and it is all encapsulated in this volume.
The Literature Times: Welcome to The Literature Times, author. Congratulations on the release of your book # I said with Meraki #. What responses are you getting from your readers? Please share your experience with this book.
Dev: It’s an overwhelming response that I have been receiving, and for that I am thankful to all my readers, friends and followers, and I must draw your attention to my last poem in my book ” Thank you”.
Even before the book was launched, I have been reading poems in radio shows (Late-night poets) broadcasted from the USA which have been appreciated by poets and writers present in the show. This had encouraged me profusely. Still I am engaged with the radio show.
The Literature Times: What encourages you to become an Author?
Dev: I never imagined being an author, I felt a deep desire to write. This is unexplainable and exactly my first poem in the book “ Enigma ” explains my feelings. I don’t know who inspires me to write but I feel a presence of some Divine aura who really motivates me to write.
I quote sloka from Bhagavad Gita: mūkaṃ karoti vācālaṃ paṃguṃ laṃghayate giri . Iyat kṛpā tamahaṃ vaṃde paramānaṃda mādhavam .
I salute that supreme bliss, Madhava, by whose mercy the dumb become most eloquent and the lame are able to jump over the mountains.
The Literature Times: What are your favorite topics of writing? Please tell us something about your areas of interest in literature.
Dev: I have tried to touch upon many aspects concerning our day to day life. I always tried to bring out the inner feelings, emotion, desire, failures, aspirations, and so on so forth we experience in our life but we are unable to express. I tried my level best to put words to the feelings of common people through simple compositions who cannot express themselves in the form of a poem or prose , or may not be able to share feelings to anybody. In addition, I have tried to draw the attention of my readers to some unanswered questions, beliefs and practices in life.
Specifically, I tried to portray the pathetic situation that the whole world faced during Covit 19 in my poems ” Pandemic” and ” Lock down ” .
The Literature Times: We were hoping you could tell us about some of those writers who had inspired you and whom you follow?
Dev: It is an interesting and difficult question for me. I am a technical person who did B.Tech ( Hons ) in Civil Engineering From IIT Kharagpur.
I do not follow any specific writer, but I definitely got inspired and motivated by many writers whether they are poets or novelists or play writers or philosophers in the ocean of creativity. As such my knowledge is limited in the field of literature. However, I was inspired by Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Harbans Rai Bachman, Bhagwati Charan Verma
Mahadevi Verma, Mirza ghalib, Gulzar sahab , William Wordsworth, John Keats , John meshfield , Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kiplin, Max Ermann, and other great writers. Apart from the literary field the teachings of Swami Vivekanand have always inspired me from my childhood.
The Literature Times: The titles seem different and catchy; how did you decide? Please let us know the story behind it.
Dev: The title of the book is a bit different because I was always searching for a word which would be unique and catchy. The word Meraki is a Greek word , there is no equivalent word in English. The original word is derived from Turkish and it means ” to do something with passion ” , I have composed my poems with great passion , in fact I feel passion can only give birth to creativity and can ignite the fire that drives one to think out of the box.
The Literature Times: What are your achievements so far? Tell us something about your writing career.
Dev: I had started writing from the age of 17 years and continued writing till date. In the early days I used to write in the regional language ( Bengali ) , but after a while I switched to English. I used to write during college days and my poems used to get published in our Azad Hall ( IIT Kharagpur) magazine ” Azadian ” . As I remember I participated in the ” Open IIT poetry competition” and my poem ” Fear ” got first prize and bagged only Rs 50/- in the year 1981. But only about 8 years back I started writing in e-journal published in India and the USA . I fortunately got huge appreciation from fellow writers friends in India and from various parts of the world ,as for example ,I have shared some of the comments I have received from my fellow writes in the beginning of the book under the ” About author ” section .This has inspired me and boosted my confidence to write more poems and finally I decided to publish in a book form.
The Literature Times: What is your current goal in writing a career? How do you see your future in writing?
Dev: Writing is my hobby not my career till now, of course I will continue to write and publish. Rest I leave it to the almighty.
The Literature Times: Are there any other books being worked on by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Dev: I have not decided yet.
The Literature Times: How do you see Indian writing in the 21st century? What changes do you see in the modern way of writing? Do you feel it has changed by the time?
Dev: I see the writing in the 21st century very well. I am not really a right person who can answer such tall questions. However, as you are reading overall writing in the 21st century. Only I can say that people have got the opportunity to express their views openly and at this juncture self-publishing platforms have created a revolution. My poem # Bard # and ” Ever Changing Times” worth mentioning here. Theoretically speaking, it may be noted that the 21st century body of literature has made coinciding efforts towards the revival of the ethnic flavor in literature giving greater opportunities to regional writers and space to the Indianness in our literature which had been lost during colonial times. My poem ” MEERA ” brought out our Indian culture. We are witnessing a much needed resurrection of literatures typically targeted towards Indian readership with vernacular sensibilities thus creating a larger stage of varied media’s of expression and creating a more diverse and inclusive readership for all modern writers in the country today despite the fact that English may be the medium in many cases.
The Literature Times: How easy/ difficult it was for you to publish your book? What message would you like to give to budding authors?
Dev: To publish my book was definitely not a cake walk, a lot of time, effort and research was required. But from where I’m coming, I knew that it was the will of God which has the final say, so I had to be patient.
Evincpub Publication is the best discovery made by me and my team, as their style is different from others and still more effective. They don’t push you to publish with them and no marketing of their brand image is done by them, so that assured me that they will not put their advertising cost to my package, and I will get better support, effective team at a lesser price.
