Soliloquy

I sat down with Sohinee Dey of Sohinee Reads and Reviews recently and spoke about my latest collection of poems They Were My Heroes, among other things. My life in cricket, as is its wont, came up in conversation too, as did my ideas about writing and advocating for the truth in general.

While the interview can be accessed on Sohinee’s blog, I have also reproduced our conversation in full here.

Sohinee: What was your thought process while crafting your latest poetry book, They Were My Heroes?

Mohul: I conceived this notion of a collection of poems, loosely titled on a concept of heroes, about three years ago. However, my travelogue Seeking Kathmandu was about to come out then and I could not quite give poetry the attention I thought it deserved. 

Nonetheless, I knew that I had this theme of requiem that I wanted to explore, and They Were My Heroes, in a manner of speaking, is my response to that. In a lot of ways, crafting such a book devoid of analogy leaves the work open to interpretation, but it is not such a bad thing as it is made out, I believe.

Sohinee: What is the story behind the title, They Were My Heroes? When you say “They”, who are you referring to?

Mohul: The book, in essence, was crafted with the idea of the men in Hyderabad cricket who had inspired me to take the sport up in the first place, and who continually kept pushing their barriers in order to chase excellence. 

My parents Champa and Probir were, quite naturally, the biggest influences upon me, so they are my heroes too, as was my coach the late Mr Anil Mittal, to whom I owe more than what I can express in words. 

The others in the title refer to others in Hyderabad cricket, men whom I used to admire at first from afar and later found myself in their midst. Growing up, Akshath Reddy, Ibrahim Khaleel, Habeeb Ahmed, Youraj Singh, Anirudh Singh, Indershekhar Reddy, Mehdi Hasan et al were the men I used to look up to. 

Playing and growing up alongside them while nurturing my skills, and in whatever little way being able to etch my name in stone is the greatest tribute I can give to these heroes of mine.

Sohinee: As a national-level cricketer, sports journalist and writer, how do you juggle between the professions? What does your typical workday look like?

Mohul: It gets quite challenging at times to juggle all three, but I enjoy doing so and believe that staying engaged is perhaps the best occupation for the human mind! 

A regular day begins at 5:30, with training for cricket for about eight hours split into two sessions throughout the day. My work for Sportskeeda- where I am employed as a journalist- takes up another six to seven hours. 

Whatever little energy I have after that is expended on writing. My weekends are mainly spent documenting and editing any previous work. I also contribute to a few periodicals and magazines across the world, so this too takes up some of my time.

Sohinee: Since most of your works have been semi-autobiographical in nature, have you ever felt that it made you more vulnerable to your readers since you weren’t talking about a character but rather expressing your experiences?

Mohul: I have often asked myself if I am opening myself to self-harm by being so vulnerable in front of my readers. But the truth of the matter is that it is only when committing the perjury of ignorance that one mistakes being defenceless as being vulnerable. I have always believed in not misinterpreting candour for warmth or fervour for inducement. 

To be open is to welcome the blessings that this universe has in store for all of us, and I do not consider myself to be helpless at all. If anything, the reader will be able to perceive himself/ herself better if they do manage to relate to my experiences. Self-awareness, perhaps, is the biggest refrain in most of my books, and They Were My Heroes is no different.

Sohinee: When it comes to poetry, who are you inspired by the most?

Mohul: Vikram Seth is a big influence on my poetry. I have devoured his work and keep going back to them from time to time. Sometimes, it is to merely check if my heart is still beating. 

Hugo Williams and Dana Gioia have inspired me a lot too. I often feel that Williams speaks for me whenever I struggle to find words, whereas Gioa’s experiments with the darknesses of the human soul allure me. 

Seth, I have always maintained, is the finest writer in English this country has given birth to, and I remain awe-inspired by his grandiloquence, enunciation and nonchalant grip on the language. His treatises on passion, companionship and most importantly, friendship, are non-pareil.

Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mirza Ghalib, Ahmad Faraz, Mir Taqi Mir and Dagh Dehlvi’s works in Urdu have often given me fresh perspectives whenever I have felt lost.

Sohinee: What would be some of your tips for those who want to pursue writing as a career?

Mohul: Persistence, I believe, is the key to any endeavour in life, and that holds true to writing as well. When we think of giving up, we often don’t realise how close we were to success when we thought of throwing the rope in. 

Rejection breeds plentiful in the writing business, and someone who wishes to take it up as a profession needs to be able to take it in their stride. 

It is, also, I believe, a profession where one can do justice to their true potential without having to bow to the powers that be. There is a certain idea of truth that can be pursued as a writer without having to bend to the status quo or subscribe to the suppositions held by others. 

Anyone with a penchant for fighting for justice- either for themselves or for those without a voice- already has the makings of a writer. It is a business where one can pursue the cause of justice without fear or favour.

Sohinee: If you had to pick any three favourites from your latest poetry collection, which poems would you choose and why?

Mohul: Asking me to pick my favourites from They Were My Heroes is akin to asking a parent to choose between their children! Some of the poems that I wrote in the section ‘In Tribute’ are especially close to my heart owing to the people they are dedicated to. 

Some of the free verse poems in the book also mean a lot given that I had little to no expertise in the craft when I started out. It is hard to point a finger at a few particular poems when the process of creating them all had one constant: a lump in my throat and a search – of what, I am still not sure.

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