Glory Sasikala responds

GLORY SASIKALA: I'm a poet and a writer based in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. I'm the Editor and Publisher of GloMag, a Monthly Poetry and Prose Magazine. Not a conscious decision, but surprisingly, looking back at my life, I find that I haven't been a very compromising person when it came to the question of my freedom. That's not to say that I am irresponsible, quite the opposite. I'm a Capricornian and a disgrace to the birth sign in that I'm gregarious to a fault at times. But truth is, I'm happy amongst company and happier alone. I think I'm pretty simple, easy to figure out, uncomplicated ... so long as you tune in to female logic, I guess. I also have this innate ability to transcend the status barrier and relate to people as just people, as comfortable in a hut as I would be in a palace. The strange thing is people relate to me that way too. There's a wild, untamed side to me too, left over from the wild young girl who ran barefoot like the wind and explored hills and woods. Strangely, I'm that blessed woman who has been in every relationship known to womankind: sister, daughter, daughter-in-law, wife, mother, mother-in-law, aunt, grandmother ... you name it. It's kind of making it easy for me to write a novel, and it kinda makes it easy for me to relate on a personal level to the experiences that women go through just because of their gender.

DV: Do you recall how you became interested in writing poetry?

GS: Yes, in fact, I do remember. I started writing poetry when I was around 7 years old, inspired by the poem "Boats Sail On The River" by Christina Georgina Rossetti. It was such a simple poem, and I thought I could write one too. My first poem written then was titled, "Our God Is The Best" and it depicted an argument between two birds about whose God was the best. Finally they decided that all Gods are good and went to sleep. The poem impressed my father a lot and he sent copies of it out to his friends, colleagues, and our relatives, which led to me being called The Poetess. My father used to make me carry a small notebook with me all the time and I would jot down my thoughts in it and turn them into stories and poetry, and even plays. All of this came to a standstill after he died. I was just 10 years old at that time, and I felt too insecure to go on without his guidance. I could not stop writing poetry, however, because it was so much an inherent part of me, but it was now more a personal hobby. I wrote in my diary and never showed it to anyone. Later on, I took up literature in college, and encouraged by my professors, I once again picked up the courage to share my work with others. However, I only wrote rhyming verses then. I was introduced to free verse much later, but I took to it like fish to water. I found it most freeing, and it allowed me to express myself without any restrictions for the first time and in a way I never thought possible. I still write rhymes, but it's not the only thing I do anymore. I continue to experiment with forms and free verse as well.

DV: The Rossetti poem is indeed quite simple:

And ships sail on the seas; 
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier far than these. 
There are bridges on the rivers, 
As pretty as you please; 
But the bow that bridges heaven, 
And overtops the trees, 
And builds a road from earth to sky, 
Is prettier far than these.

The rhyme scheme, however, is unusual and rather sophisticated for such a simplistic observation. But I can see how it might appeal to a bright seven-year-old. I wonder if you can recall which example of free verse converted you. How old were you?

GS: I was introduced to free verse as late as in 2003, which, to answer your question, would place me at 39 years old. I had actually given up on my writing for a long time after my marriage, concentrating on taking care of my family and bringing up my kids. But yes, I did manage to get a novel published in 1997, followed by getting some poems published in various anthologies. But I was a computer illiterate at that time, and even later on, when we moved to Kolkata for three years. We came back to Chennai in 2002, and I joined Anna University to train as a Medical Transcriptionist, and thus was introduced to the computer for the first time. Simultaneously, I got in touch with some poetry groups in the city, and one of the poets, Sivakami Velliangiri, added me to her online yahoo group, Soulflash. To me, being new to computers, this was pretty much like how Harry Potter must have felt. I clicked on some link at the bottom of a mail, and then I was in this Diagon-Alley-like space, inhabited by the Non-Muggles – the poetry-writing people. Only, no one wrote on the group at that time. The space remained empty, and so, I started posting my own work – all rhyming verses – mostly quartets. And then, someone posted a gentle query: "How about trying free verse?" Now, I knew about free verse, of course, and I definitely did not like it! I had all my arguments ready, that it was not poetry, that it was beautiful thoughts, yes, but definitely not poetry. And then, a second mail arrived, gently asking: "Are you sure you're not compromising on the meaning in order to rhyme?" That made me pause, and I took up the challenge. Not sure which was my first-ever free verse, but I do remember the feeling of being set free from a cage and flying high into the sky. Here is one of my earliest of free verses:

We walk towards
A tree full of yellow flowers
The shape of bells.
What flowers are these, I wonder
"Yellow flowers," he says
Yes, but what tree is this, I wonder
"A tree with yellow flowers," he says.
I look at him to see if he is joking
He is not.
I sigh a deep sigh of acceptance
We walk past
The tree with yellow flowers.

DV: Could you chronicle your life in poetry from Soulflash to GloMag?

GS: I remained a member of Soulflash – the yahoo group for poetry – for a quite a while, maybe two to three years. I must acknowledge the value of that experience. The close-knit, almost family-like unit allowed me to grow as a poet, experiment boldly, and be assured of constructive feedback. But later, a second – and I'd say country-encompassing group – started. Caferati (writing over coffee) was more of a movement than a group that caught on like wildfire and spread, ignited by the enthusiasm of the younger generation, who also had the sagacity to associate with, and imbibe from, the vast experience of veterans. Meanwhile, I was finding Soulflash very restrictive as it was strictly a poetry group. I write with ease in all genres and I was finding it difficult to stick to definitions like "prose" and "poetry." I jumped on to the Caferati bandwagon pretty late, and, as it turned out, at the fag end of it, when the enthusiasm had died down quite a bit. I stayed in Caferati for a year, but again, found that there were too many rules regarding posting that were beyond me. It even led me to write a metaphoric flash fiction about a gypsy girl who looked beyond the fence of a school where disciplined exercises and drills were being taught – while hanging from a tree, upside down and eating a mango. I then formed my own yahoo group, Glorioustimes. Several Caferati members who were also having difficulty drawing within the lines also crossed over, and I had a good thing going. There were no restrictions except that destructive criticism was not allowed on the group. Conversations turned to writing and writing turned back to conversation. But the group slowly dwindled into a chat group, and I started feeling restive again. This was not why I was online, this was not the reason I had formed a group. I wanted my personal writing to flourish, I wanted to fulfill my dream of bringing out a magazine someday. And so, I started experimenting. I first made a magazine out of a blog and called it "Glo-Talk." But the blog format did not accommodate all aspects of a magazine. So then I switched to compiling MS documents, but that did not work either. It helped – and helps – that I am a nerd. Surfing the net and checking out shortcuts and new technologies still excites me. And that's how I chanced on Joomag, a complete digital solution platform that allowed me to fulfil my dream of owning a magazine with poetry, pictures, and music in it, a dream I had cherished since I was 12 years old and my cousin had gifted me a book with poetry and pictures in it. Once I decided to bring out GloMag via Joomag, I requested my poetic friends to send me their poems. But when there was no response, the request turned to screeching fury: "All I'm asking for is a poem! Can't you all comply?" And this time, they all hurriedly complied, and that is how the first issue of GloMag was launched in a wonderful online launch on Facebook in July 2015. It's three years past now, and there's been no looking back. The search was over, the mind is at peace, and all I now had to do was concentrate on building the magazine and making it work.

DV: And work it does, very well indeed. But how do you manage to find the time to maintain the mag's high quality while also working full time?

GS: I quit my last job as Senior Copyeditor (language editing) with a private company two months back with a resolution to give up language editing and quality analysis once and for all and concentrate on making a living out of creative writing. It's two months past now, and I haven't regretted that decision yet although it's thrown out of the window the well planned out way of life that I'm used to. For the first time, there's no external pressure to perform; for the first time too, there are no timings other than what I set for myself. The first week, I found these things so unnerving that I went into complete depression. But I'm slowly getting the hang of it now and finding my way out one step at a time. But yes, all this while, since I started GloMag in July 2015 right up to now, I've managed to juggle not just my full-time career and GloMag but also take care of my grandson for seven to eight hours a day and take care of my personal needs as well. Looking back, it does seem a little impossible, and a bit of a miracle. But yes, knowing how to manage time, being aware of my body rhythm, etc., these ensure maximum utilization of available time. I've also taught myself to think of time in terms of moments, not hours or even minutes. If I've edited for a couple of hours, then my relaxation would not be to have a cup of tea or watch TV. It would be to make GloMag. I consider GloMag as relaxation and not work. I'd spend moments collecting the works, putting them in folders, making the document. It is a hard process to say the least but I work from a database. That's made it easier with every issue. I believe being methodical simplifies a lot of things and makes life easier. However, making the magazine is not the hardest part. The hardest part is getting people to write in. I'd be one of those very patient publishers who will wait and wait and wait till my writer is ready to part with his/her work. In fact, I've been known to postpone bringing out the mag because someone hasn't been able to complete the work because they have a writer's block. It all works out quite well in the end, and I am somewhat regular in that I do manage to bring out the magazine every month, and I also end up being that lucky publisher who manages to get more than 100 people to write in every month, which still amazes me after three years of seeing it happen. Another reason why GloMag has worked out so well is that I try to keep things simple to the point where I am very comfortable with it. I don't make grand gestures, I don't seek physical presence or too much time out of anyone, I don't have very big dreams, and I don't promise more than I can deliver. So it's just an online magazine out every month, featuring the work on the group, placing the mag in as many online portals as I can, and of course now, bringing out two books (hard copies) per year. This makes GloMag a kind of one-stop complete solution for most writers, both poets and prose writers (since GloMag now features prose as well), and at the same time, very easy to comply with. Making things that easy does have its drawbacks in that some people seem to respect more those anthologies that make it difficult for their work to be featured in them, but well, I just shrug at that, knowing it's their loss, not mine. There's one more thing about GloMag that I would like to reiterate here, and that's the fact that I strictly keep monetary benefits out of the equation. The online magazine is completely nonmonetary. This actually works out much better than I believed it would because I am able to take music and pictures that I might not be able to access if I went in for a monetary venture. For the hard copy books, I pay the cost price. All I hope that the writers will do is buy a copy of the book at the quite nominal amount mentioned. The cost price I pay is high, yes, but this venture is my baby after all, and this is the way I want things done. Keeping things at a nonmonetary level allows me to focus completely on the aesthetic value of the magazine, which remains the ultimate goal.

DV: Like you, I suppose, I do not hate money, and I recognize its utility, but from the beginning I was determined to keep duanespoetree.blogspot.com entirely noncommercial. I realize that there are ways to monetize it, but I'm convinced some things should be free (in all senses of that term). If contributors could get paid for their efforts it might be a different story, but I don't wish to benefit materially from someone else's work and inspiration. (Decades ago, I conceived of a daily poem-sharing site that would operate by subscription, and I would pay the poet based on that day's receipts. But I was lost when it came to setting up the program.)  Do you participate in any of the awards programs, such as the Pushcart Prize or The Best of the Net anthologies?

GS: I haven't participated in any of the award programs so far.  I intend to this year ... next year ... sometime. It just didn't occur to me, but somebody (one of the GloMag members) insisted lately that I should.

DV: What other GloMag projects are you mulling over?

GS: Regards GloMag, I think I shall just continue with it the way it is going now. I operate around a database of 130 writers. Calling for submissions, personal interactions, making the magazine, publishing and placing – all these are on-going processes, and I do them every month. I also keep updating my database and information. I need to work on getting more media attention for the magazine. Honestly, I don't know how to do this. I need to find out how this can be done. The second thing I'm still working on is placing the magazine. I have a blog where the links can lead you to all the issues of GloMag. It's not updated as yet, but I am updating this on a daily basis and hopefully it will get done soon. It's called GloMag Library. I also place a PDF copy of the magazine in Open Library. The third thing I hope to have done in future is get some research scholar to take up GloMag as a subject for thesis. So yes, these are three aspects that I am mulling over.

DV: GloMag is lucky to have such an ambitious proprietor.  Doesn't this interfere with your own writing?

GS: No, GloMag hasn't affected any of my other commitments, which is a bit strange because I do spend a couple of hours a day with it, and because even my personal writing apart, I have too many commitments. I was working full time, taking care of my grandson a good six hours a day. But all these things do not affect my making of GloMag and vice versa. I use all my spare time making the mag. I think of time in measures of moments, not seconds or hours or minutes. Almost all my spare moments go into making GloMag. It is a couple of days before publishing the magazine that nights and days blur as I try to perfect it and upload, and then update the database. I might then end up working on the mag right round the clock with very little sleep. I've come to define my personal writing as my profession only recently. Only time will tell whether this decision is justified. My personal writing includes my poetry, prose and short stories. It's basically my trying to juggle all three genres as well as GloMag that is the problem, but yes, that's pretty much the way I like to do things.

DV: Are your three genres all of a piece (Gloriana, collectively?) or do you distinguish among them in terms of purpose, inspiration, importance, audience, or any other criterion? How do you approach each one during the process of writing?

GS: Some things are common in my writings in all three genres, such as the fact that I consider all writing to be forms of communication, by which I mean that it's a two-way process of speaking and writing and being listened to and read, respectively. As such, what interests my audience is very important to me. This is also the reason why clarity is very important to me in all my writings. I do not believe in abstract writing that is hard to decipher or meaningless. These things apart though, my approach to each genre is different. With my poetry, I tend to be extremely playful and experimental. I'm game to try out anything, from spontaneous outbursts to form poetry to writing poetry based on a given caption such as in workshops. I love limericks and repartees in poetry. There's a website called "One word dot com" where they give you one word as caption and you have to write out a poem in a minute. I find this site delightful and very good exercise. But while the reason and topic and forms may differ, whatever I write is always from sincere thoughts – from what I truly feel and believe in. I did bring out a collection of my poetry, titled "Serenade a Moment" and intend bringing out several more via Kindle, though pretty much for free. I don't believe in selling my poetry. I prefer just sharing it with everyone as much as I can. You can find all my poetry in my poetry blog, ‘Glo's Poems’ as well the Notes section in my timeline in Facebook, and indeed, all over the net. I also write special theme-based four-liners called Moon Mania. I have a deep love for the Moon, with its unending moods and presentations. I like to take photographs of the Moon and combine them with four-liner love poems. These too are stored in a blog, and I also intend bringing them out as a book. The best short stories I've written are anecdotes from my life experiences. I believe fiction writers are actually very good actors because they have to change character even from one line to another. I am very impressionable and sensitive and attuned to everything that goes on around me. I live in the moment. Tones, colors, backgrounds, speech, body language, dresses, behavior, all these factors, and more, stay with me and go into my writing. While it's easy for me to stay with, relate to, and write from any character's point of view, I'm at my best when I'm writing from my own experiences. The tone of all my prose writings tends to be conversational and interactive, making the reader want to respond. I have yet to bring out a book of my short stories and I hope to do so soon. With regard to my novel writing, I have already brought out one novel, titled "Goodbye Papa," which was published by Prof. P. Lal from Kolkata. It is a book about the rights of children and is a story about two child laborers. This novel was published in 1997. I haven't written a novel since then, though this is a genre I am very comfortable with. The reason is a lack of time, yes, but it's also because I just didn't find my niche. Being a very individualized person, this aspect is very important to me. A lot of people seem to write novels for the wrong reason – because it's the one genre that can make them famous. But truly, when you think about it, the stories that stand the test of time, that we call classics, that we pick up again and again and re-read, are those that were first enjoyed by the writers themselves, which came from a place of the joy of creation – and were created for creation itself. I wanted to wait till I had found that joy, till I really had something to say to the world, something to leave behind that I will have the satisfaction of knowing that it wasn't just a half-baked effort for the wrong reasons. I feel I have found that niche now, and I am now in the process of writing a novel. It is interesting, exciting, and well...I am happy with it. What is it about? Well, it's a little of everything right now. When the jigsaw puzzles fall into place, it will possibly fall under the category of a psychological drama. I hope to complete it by the end of this year, but well, I juggle too many things and it might take a bit longer than that.

DV: You have so many things to do. I don't want to take up any more of your time, except to thank you for sharing your views on writing.

GS: It’s not an issue at all, Duane. I’m deeply honored that you think highly enough of me to want to do an interview. I hope that I did justice to your faith in me, and that you were satisfied with my answers. It’s been a pleasure answering your questions, and it’s at the same time been a soul-search for me as well, putting into perspective my priorities. I can’t thank you enough for writing to me and taking the time to read my answers and replying. It’s a happy thought that this interview is just part of a journey we share together and I will continue to send my poems to you and badger you for yours. I still recall with pleasure my meeting you in Yercaud…it feels like a lovely dream now when I think of it. At that time, it seemed that we were destined to meet? Thank you once again for this opportunity, and I wish you all the very best in life.

DV: Yes, the Plant Poetry weekend at Yercaud was a wonderful time. It was a bit of a surprise for me to find such a cool spot in India in the summer, but the highlights included meeting such wonderful people and the campfire confab. Maybe our paths will cross again!