Q: To quote poet and publisher P. Lal from his questionnaire sent in the 1960s to an earlier generation of Indian English poets: “What are the circumstances that led to your using the English language for the purpose of writing poetry?” And of course, is such a question relevant to today’s poets, several decades after Lal’s query?
J.T: It was a relevant question in the Sixties. Today, not so much, except among regional-language poets who will contend that those of us who write in English are somehow inauthentic. This is an obsolete notion. There’s a reason why this questionnaire is in English. It’s the only way Indians can communicate with each other. I don’t speak Hindi, or Malayalam, and hope I never have to.
Q: In addition to poets from the Anglo-American canon, has your poetry been influenced by Indian English poets of an earlier generation (whether the 19th century pioneers like Derozio and Toru Dutt, or early 20th century poets like Tagore and Sarojini Naidu, or those from the post-1947 generation like Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, and A.K. Ramanujan)? Do you consider your poetry a part of this two-hundred-year-old tradition?
J.T: I am very much a part of the two-hundred-year-old tradition of Indian poetry written in English. I know there are poets who do not consider themselves part of this tradition, and I think it’s a pity. Even if your interest is the breaking of tradition you should know what it is, to break it better. I also consider myself part of the thirteen-hundred-year-old tradition that goes back to the first poem written in the English language, Beowulf. And there is a third tradition of which I am a part. I am an Indian poet, which makes me a modern embodiment of the tradition of Indian poetry that goes back some three thousand years to the Rig Veda,
the oldest poetic tradition of them all.
Q: What are your views on a readership/audience for Indian poetry in English? Does such a thing exist outside English classrooms and literary circles? How much of a consideration is the readership in your poetic
process?
J.T: I write for myself and the poets I admire, living and dead. Classrooms and audiences come into it later, when I take it outside. If I want to be kind, I pick poems that might amuse, entertain or delight, always keeping in mind that there are readers who will resist delight with all their might.
Q: Do you read, write, or translate poetry in a language other than English? If yes, how does it influence your poetry in English?
J.T: I read, write, think and dream in only one language, the Indian language also known as English.
Q: Have you ever taught poetry in a class, at a workshop, or in an informal setting? If yes, which aspects of poetry do you think can be taught?
J.T: I have taught in several countries and in various settings, from the classroom lecture to the graduate workshop to the online interactive course. I’ve learned a few things over the years. You can teach students how to read a poem. By this I mean the technical side, the number of syllables in a line, the way it scans and how to scan, the metrical foot and how to identify it, the paradoxical freedom of formal verse, the uses of rhyme, and so, infinitely, on. What you can’t teach is how to write a poem.
