Up, Close and Personal– Nishi Pulugurtha

Candice Louisa Daquin in conversation with Nishi Pulugurtha

Candice: Dear Dr. Pulugurtha. It is an honor to interview you on behalf of Parcham Literary Magazine. I knew you prior to Parcham through shared projects and oft admired your writing for its fine candor and ability to get to the heart of an issue with few words so powerfully. To ask the most obvious question first; why poetry? Why did you choose to write poetry? What does it exemplify for you?

Nishi: Thank you so much Candice. It has been a pleasure working with you. I write in genres that I feel like. My first published works have been in the genre of prose, nonfiction prose to be specific. Poetry is something that one reads, enjoys, savours, some lines remain, so do some expressions. It is also something that is part of my academic training as well.

Poetry was something that I began to write much later. I think it best expresses the hidden feelings, those that remain in the inner recesses, that one wants to write and let be. It is also something about universality, taking the specific, the individual to another plane. To me it exemplifies the coming together of thoughts, expressions, images, metaphors, sensory expressions and sensibility. It is about taking one into the inner core, of finding meanings, associations, resonances. It is about life in its myriad moments.

Candice: In your poem Colours that Vanish, published by Parcham in our third issue, in 2023, you write about colour but you write far, far more. I found in this small poem, an entire world. I would say your writing style can be very clever in this way, because it presents one subject but touches on so many deeper layers. Do you feel this is something that poetry does best?

Nishi: Yes, that it surely does. It allows one to bring in several things, several layers. Each word, every line, how one begins, the use of rhyme, the use of capitals, punctuation, each and every thing brings with it nuances, ways of reading. Every reading and re-reading adds newer layers of understanding too.

Candice: We are Parcham seek to highlight both poetry and prose as well as art and photography, the entire gamut. I note that in your own life, you do not stick to one oeuvre but rather, you have a wide range of erudition and interest which you love to dabble in, with your recent volume of essays on Pandemics. Do you find by not sticking to one thing, you flourish more? Tell us about your upcoming essay collection.

Nishi: I do not have a specific plan, or a specific reason why I am exploring more forms or writing in several genre rather than sticking to one. For me writing is something that gives me pleasure. It brings me solace. It is cathartic too, in many ways, I feel. As I note, I began my ‘literary’ career (if I could call it one) by writing nonfiction. Over a period of time I have written several prose pieces, on travel (most of them are published in the volume Out in the Open). During the pandemic, I wrote essays on life during the times that is now published in a volume called Lockdown Times. They are not large essays, more in the nature of musings.

The volume, Literary Representations of Pandemics, Epidemic and Pestilence is an academic work that had its origins in an online issue and later went on to become an edited volume. I began working on it during the pandemic when things were very difficult. Dealing with a pandemic and working on the essays, I suppose, gave me a perspective to look at the reality of life during the times too. Some of my other essays are due to be published in a volume by Red River some time this year.

Candice: Do you find your position as Associate Professor and a senior academic, you are pushed or encouraged to write more? Or do you believe regardless of your work you would still be a writer?

Nishi: As I said, writing is something that gives me solace. I enjoy doing it. Teaching in the college has its rigours. At times it becomes tedious too, with examinations and evaluations. Writing gives me respite. Some relief from the tedium of life. Even if for a while.

Candice: Why did you choose to specialize in British Romantic Literature and Indian writing in English as two of your areas of speciality and interest?

Nishi: British Romantic literature, particularly poetry is something that one begins reading while in school in India. I qualified the fellowship examination almost at the same time that I completed my masters and began work on my PhD almost immediately. I decided to work on Coleridge’s poetry, but I worked on a lot of his prose work also for my thesis. Reading Coleridge’s work gave me a perspective, it made me aware of the larger area of life that becomes part of his work, of the way in which the social, the political intertwined with his poetry. Of the connections that poetry makes with the larger outside world.  

Candice: Tell us a little about your background in Shakespeare adaptations in film.

Nishi: Films are something that I have always enjoyed. There was a time when I wanted to do my PhD on films. That was a time when one could not do a PhD  on films in India, at least not in Kolkata. My fascination with films continued, it still does. I did academic work on several films and have published papers on them in journals and as book chapters. My interest in Shakespeare adaptations came from this interest in films and my background in English literature.

Candice: Regarding post-colonialist studies, how do you reconcile the increase in writing in English in India, with its colonialist history of suppression by the English? Do you think India has taken the language of the colonists and should seek to find unifying languages that are very disparate from the colonialists or do you believe that post-colonialism offers people a chance to take the best from the worst and recreate it? If the latter, is this why you find writing in English satisfying?

Nishi: In the case of writing in English, it is the empire writing back. I am always reminded of the Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin book, The Empire Writes Back. English was a language learnt in India even before it was imposed and in due course, we have made it our own. I am always reminded of Raja Rao’s introduction to Kanthapura and Kamala Das’s poem “The Introduction”. In a multilingual country like India several of us have grown up learning English since our childhood.  Most of us speak several languages with equal ease and move between languages with equal ease. I do that too. I move between English, Bengali (the language of the city and I state I have always lived in), Telugu (my mother tongue) and Hindi (the second language that I learnt at school). When it comes to writing, for me it is always English that I am comfortable in. It is the language of my thoughts and expression.  

Candice: As an editor I have been fortunate enough to work with several very respected Indian based publishing organizations, not least Parcham Literary Magazine. I am often asked why I like working with Indian writers who write in English so much. I find the language of an Indian writer who writes in English, is flavored with the Indian culture, and then the region the author comes from. It is a beautiful blend of Indian influences throughout the English language. I would go as far as to say I think an Indian writer who writes in English is actually creating a unique language that is NOT English-English or American-English etc. It is unique to India. Would you agree? Disagree?

Nishi: Yes, I would agree with you here.

Candice: How do you balance and reconcile the seemingly divergent interests of English Literature and the more science-based work you have been involved in lately, namely on Alzheimer’s and the Pandemic? What led to this shift?

Nishi: My interest in Alzheimer’s Disease is because of having been a primary caregiver to my mother who had Alzheimer’s Disease. I saw what it does closely and how one needs support to continue on the journey. The Covid 19 pandemic was the reajfv son for the other interest. As a poet and writer one is always responding to the world around. What I write is rooted in the reality of the world around me. I do not see the divergent interests that you refer to as things that need to be balanced. They have been a part of my life and that is how they become part of my writing world, both academic and creative. 

Candice: When you write poetry, are you very intentional about it or is it more of a free form experience where poetry writes you?

Nishi: Usually, it is a free one but there are times when one is responding to a specific theme or happening. There is no rigid rule that I follow.

Candice: What are your goals in terms of writing as you go forward? What do you think you would still like to attempt in terms of writing?

Nishi: I have been writing on food and memoir and am looking forward to see that manuscript in published form some day soon. Also, a book project that focusses on the dementia experience in India.

Candice: How much does your identity as an Indian writer and an Indian woman, influence the way you write and what you choose to write about?

Nishi: My Indianness is surely seen in the way I write, I suppose. Many of my stories have been characterized as ‘feminist’ in tone and subject matter.

Candice: Thank you so much for answering these questions. We at Parcham are so fortunate to have your accomplished and beautiful work in our issues. We hope to work with you again.

Nishi: Thank you..