While her first book of poems has just been published, the poet-author is working on a book of poems for kids next.
She may be a debut author but Punam Chadha-Joseph's poems touch you, inspire you and make you look inward. Her book of poems titled'The Soulful Seeker, which is a journey of self-discovery, has just been launched. Interestingly, Punam is not just a poet, she is also a very good sketch artist. In this exclusive chat with dna, she talks about her book of poems, poetry today and more.
What is the inspiration behind your poetry?
Life! Events, happenings, joys, sorrows, fears, frustrations, family, friends, hopes, dreams, desires and disappointments. Every emotion that most of us experience on a daily basis is my inspiration.
Why did you choose poetry to express yourself?
That's an answer I'm still searching for... While I've always enjoyed writing to help formalise my thoughts, poetry happened quite organically. Without quite realising it, I found that I often replied to emails, received from friends across the world, in rhyme. And as I became conscious of this, friends and my family encouraged me to start writing poetry more actively and this collection turned into The Soulful Seeker.
You've also included your sketches in The Soulful Seeker.
I enjoy doing things with my hands— sewing, craft, gift-wrapping and the like. And as an extension of that, I started sketching for fun. I was instinctively drawn to faces and soon developed a style of my own. These illustrations I shared with friends and on a whim with my publisher and editor. They liked them so much that they decided to use them as section-dividers for my book, one of which also became the cover with the red background that was also painted by me.
How can poetry be made appealing to kids?
Interestingly, my next book is a book of poems on the environment, specially written for children. Each poem carries a social message, creating awareness about the beauty of nature, planting more trees, re-using paper, the harm caused by using thin plastic bags, loving animals, saving fuel, etc. I believe that these ideas, when presented in a simple, easy to read style, can help children relate to and appreciate poetry better, along with the usual nursery rhymes that they are taught in school. My sincere hope is to convince principals of various schools and other educators to add books like these to their curriculum.
Punam with her husband Sabbas Joseph.
Who are some of your favourite poets?
Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Vikram Seth, Ogden Nash, Kenn Nesbitt, Nadir Godrej, Rudyard Kipling and Langston Hughes.
Do you think poetry is a dying art?
Unfortunately yes. But I think that has more to do with a vast majority of adults having a mental block towards poetry and not owing to a lack of poets. This I believe is a fall out of being exposed to poetry that we couldn't really relate to during our school days. The brilliantly penned verses of poets across the ages, like William Wordsworth, PB Shelley, John Keats, George Byron, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Shakespeare, we're possibly not taught well enough to appeal to our young school-going sensibilities and hence the disconnect. Of course, those with an interest in literature continue to re-visit the works of these and many more all-time greats. For me, personally, poetry has to be both easy to read and easy to understand.
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