A Tete-a-tete with Menka Shivadasani: An Interview

By : K. V. Raghupathi

Page No: 16-27

Author :
K. V. Raghupathi
K.V. Raghupathi holds a Ph.D. in English Literature, writes in English, and lives at Tirupati. Poet, novelist, short story writer, and critic, he has been widely anthologized and published. Published thirty books that include twelve poetry collections, two novels, and two short story collections besides eight edited critical works. His poetry collections include Desert Blooms (1987), Echoes Silent (1988), The Images of a Growing Dying City (1989), Small reflections (2000), Samarpana (2006), Voice of the Valley (2006, 2014), Wisdom of the Peepal Tree (2006, 2014), Dispersed Symphonies (2010), Orphan and Other Poems (2010), Between Me and the Babe (2014), On and Beyond the Surface (2018), and TheMountain is Calling… (2018). His poetry is usually marked with rich and dense philosophy, mystical/transcendental thoughts, romantic elements, and imagery comprising similes, metaphors, personifications, apostrophe, irony, climax, anticlimax, and full of rhetoric and symbols. His two novels are The Invalid (2012) and The Disappointed (2014); his short fiction includes: The Untouchable Piglet (2015) and A Gay and a Straight Woman (2017). His poems and short stories, besides thought-provoking and stimulating scholarly papers, have appeared in various newspapers like The Hindu, The Statesman, Print and online journals. He taught at three different universities, S.V. University, Tirupati (1997-2007), Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa (2007-2011), and the Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur (2011-2019). His other passions include classical Karnatic Music and Yoga. As a Yoga sadhaka in the classical tradition, he has published over thirty articles and four books on Yoga besides delivered eighty-six discourses on his Yoga channel. His thoughts on Yoga and Yogic life are most radical, unconventional, and deeply insightful. He is a recipient of several national awards for his poetry, creative wring, and Yoga.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/POET.2022.35.01.2