Heartfelt words of passion

Mona

You might have to set aside time for prose, but poetry finds its own time in you, this is how Sumita Misra, Principal Secretary Department of Tourism Govt of Haryana finds it. Twenty six years in a highly-demanding career, mother to two young girls, this IAS officer has continued her passion for poetry, and how.

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield (Ulysses) is what Sumita studied in school, something that has stayed with her ever since. It was only 10 years back that she started going back to her favourite lines. In fact, poets occupy ample space in her personal book collection! 

Still, in the times of short fiction, chic lit poems? “I have expressed my inner self through the verses, and they serve no other intention, but record the moment... the feeling.” It’s another story how Khushwant Singh became instrumental in getting her first collection A Life of Light published. Sumita switched to writing in Hindustani as she felt that it gives a better expression to her emotions and thoughts. “I am no purist. I do not write in Urdu or Hindi but Hindustani, our conversational language,” shares the poetess whose second collection of book called Zara Si Dhoop is in Hindustani. Any buyers for poetry today, “Not really but there is no dearth of people who love to go and listen to poetry in like-minded company.” Her third, Waqt Ke Ujale May was launched recently and she is on to the next, called Petrichor and Other Poems (in English). “I write at night. But a poem has its own process of germination. It keeps brewing inside till you can’t keep it any longer and just have to sit and write it out.”

Waqt Ke Ujale May has 61 poems about her experiences with family, gender, society and love. The balancing act? “While I am for all work-life balance, I do not like to intellectualise everyday stuff. Go with the flow and everything falls in place,” is her mantra.  Hard to believe, especially for someone who topped civil services. She says, “I always tell my daughter- there are three kinds of people: zero value, subtract value and add value. Wherever you are be the add value, it will enhance your life too.”

Literati was a value addition project that she is proud of but rues over Chandigarh’s intellectual heritage, “People from Chandigarh will listen to the same authors at the Jaipur Lit fest because it’s fashionable, but they will not go up to the Lake Club. And, if there is a sale at Zara, roads would be choked.”

While there are plenty of projects on her mind, on a personal front she probably wants travel and collect experiences in a book. Her poem Ye Sach Hai: Yeh sach hai Rahbar koi ho na ho, Patjhar ho ya bahar Rahguzar guzar hi jati hai. Maan lo mujhse, Hamsafar koi ho na ho, Safar ki t y, Har manjhil guzar hi jati hai.

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