‘I am a peripatetic poet’

Well, not a poet really. I’ve not been a prolific writer of poetry. But a peripatetic poet.

•Like an occasional poet.

Yes

•You remember that line from Kabhi Kabhi …Amitabh Bachchan’s. Mein pal tho pal ka shayar hoon.

Bas yahi baat hein. Pal tho pal ka shaayar hoon.

•And I believe most of these pals are on board airplanes

Absolutely. Most of these written on the cell phone.

•So you wrote your whole book of poetry on your cell phone

Absolutely. From May of this year to July of this year. All of them. Except for one or two which I had written earlier. One on Vajpayeeji. As it was written earlier, it’s in the records of the Rajya Sabha…..but other than that most of them written…..

•You remember the lines from that one

Dear atalji I must confess It is time to clear up all this mess

•Go on

Let us (something) deal with unfinished tasks and see the man behind the mask December 6th this nation saw gross violation of the law In retrospect you said this meant an expression of national sentiment

•So that was from a poet to a poet because even he was more than an occasional poet.

Oh yes.

•Haar nahi maanoga…raar nahi taanoga

Bilkul bilkul

•Ye geet mein yaa gaatha hoon

Geet bhi nahi gaathe the lekin poore tarah se unki poetry ubarkar nahi aayi

•Aur aap ko thabi shuruaat hei. It’s just the beginning.

Mein doosri bhi thaayar kar raha hoon.

•So you must be really fast with sms to write these and you must have a good phone

Very good phone

•And I think your phone company should have you as their brand ambassador.

Actually this tells you about the enormous uses of a cell phone. Because if you sit down start writing poetry, you have to scratch out words, you have to rewrite it, you have to crumble the paper, throw it in the waste paper basket. At the end of it you are frustrated. With the cell phone, you can erase it anytime, you can go back to it and erase it.

... contd.