IN CONVERSATION
`My first love is poetry'
MUKUND PADMANABHAN
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Shiv K. Kumar talks about an eventful career in literature, both as a teacher and a writer, and his latest novel, Two Mirrors at the Ashram, published recently.
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Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
A lifetime in letters: Shiv K. Kumar.
At 85, Shiv K. Kumar shows no signs of slowing down. He has just published his fourth novel, Two Mirrors at the Ashram, a story about a skeptical and hard-drinking writer whose life is unexpectedly transformed by an honest admission made by a godman. From despising the Swami, the writer becomes a disciple of the godman, and begins an intriguing quest that brings him closer to peace and self-realisation.
After receiving his doctorate in English Literature in Cambridge, Kumar taught the subject for decades, a period during which he wrote collections of poems, short stories, plays, novels and translations. The well-known literary critic — who received the Sahitya Akademi award for his poetry and the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to literature — lives in Hyderabad, where he is currently working on a retelling of the Mahabharata. Extracts from a telephonic interview:
Do you regard yourself as a poet who also writes some fiction? Or do you see it differently?
Well, it's a mixed thing. You must have noticed that in the novel [Two Mirrors at the Ashram] that I have used several verses and images and metaphors from poetry... it is a poet's work. I must confess my first love is still poetry.
Most of my friends have said that there is a lot of poetry in my fiction. I am trying to blend the two as it were.
Some of it is apparent in terms of symbolism. For example, the snake...
Yes, that's right. You might have noticed that when the young Mittra falls in love with Susan, he writes her little pieces of poetry. Incidentally, all the verses are from my own collection of poems. So I didn't have to ask for copyright!
Going beyond the novel for a moment, you were among the first Indians to get a doctorate in Literature from Cambridge?
It was for [Henri] Bergson and the stream of consciousness of novel. I didn't have a background in philosophy. I just moved into it. Perhaps, every Indian is born a philosopher. It was in Cambridge that I discovered that I could look at the stream of consciousness novel from a philosophical point of view. So I looked at Bergson — his concept of [non-linear] time — in psychological fiction.
You corresponded with Graham Greene for a while...
Oh yes, I have about half-a-dozen letters [from him]. In fact, I wish Graham Greene was alive today. When I wrote my second novel, Nude Before God, Graham Greene was gracious enough to read the manuscript. I trapped him into agreeing to read the manuscript by saying, "I don't believe in miracles, Mr. Greene, but I am teaching your novel, The End Of The Affair, which is loaded with miracles. And so maybe a little miracle will happen and you will agree to read my manuscript."
Prompt came the reply, "Send the manuscript Mr. Kumar. But you will have to give me three months time [to read it]." He was very busy as there was a libel case pending against him in Paris at that time. And I wrote back very cleverly saying, "You have asked for three months Mr. Greene. I will wait for three years." Within 15 days, I got a reply saying he had read the manuscript. He was gracious enough to refer to it as "a most amusing novel on a daring subject".
He also talked about prayer and said he always prayed on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. He was gracious enough to say that if it was my first novel, he would like to recommend it for the Commonwealth [Best First Book] Prize. He said he was also curious to know what [R..K.] Narayan would have to say about my novel.
Is it true that the Prime Minister is going to release Two Mirrors at the Ashram?
Manmohan Singh was an old colleague of mine. He had joined Punjab University as a Lecturer in Economics and since we were the only two Cantabrigians [from Cambridge University], he came to see me. A wonderful man — unassuming, modest. It was from there that he moved to becoming an economic advisor.
I am told he has agreed to launch the book at his residence. He has a number of preoccupations at the moment but I have been promised a date at the end of December.
Then you headed south, where you taught English at Osmania University and finally went on to become Vice Chancellor at the University of Hyderabad.
That's right. For one year. But I am allergic to administration. I ran away from there. I didn't relish working there as Vice Chancellor with the student strikes and all that. So I was lucky to receive an offer from the University of Oklahoma at Norman. You would have noticed that there are scenes in my novel based in Norman. I enjoyed staying there.
Coming back to your novel, we have an ashram, a godman, Westerners, spirituality, self-realisation. In some ways, you are walking along a pretty old and familiar fictional path. Did this bother you when you wrote this?
No. You would have noticed that my protagonist is a pretty unusual man. A boozer, a womaniser, an agnostic. So is my Swami, an unusual character. My protagonist enjoys debunking the Swami and there is a transformation, which I feel is very critical and natural... This is not your clichéd ashram novel.
You would have noticed that Rajesh Sahni doesn't lend himself to any woman. I think I have tried to handle his character in a very restrained manner... He is a detached character from the very beginning. Women pursue him, but here is a man who is loyal to only one woman - his mother. When he seduces Susan, it is just to score over the Swami. It is a thing in his psyche. The only truth that he perceives and realises is creative writing.
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