PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR INTERVIEW

 

NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH

POET OF THE MONTH

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR

NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Up to the last month we have published 135 monthly issues and 12 Year Book. I hope you would also like OPA very much, like hundreds of poets around the world.

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: I am honoured and feel privileged to be a part of your long marathon of serving humanity in the literary and linguistic domains. I am glad to bear the torch of this literary marathon in my hand. I assured you that I will keep it up to illuminate and keep away the darkness of ignorance and prevailing superstitions around and more particularly among the underprivileged people of the world. I am grateful to you my dear friend and honourable global poet from the core of my heart because you have been working with your such a high level of dedication that have changed our thinking process to work for the upliftment of the society. You have always attached importance to the basic human values like peace, harmony, friendship, sympathy and compassion, and so on. We are proud working under your literary and scholarly leadership. You have made us feel like a community to work together to turn this world in to a beautiful place to live together with peace, love and happiness. Your personality is very charismatic and commanding for us. Therefore, we have always supported you wholeheartedly and submitted our work within stipulated time frame. We will extend our hands of cooperation in future too. My best wishes will always remain with you.

NILAVRONILL: Why do literature and poetry in particular interest you so much? Please give us some idea about your own perception of literature or poetry in general. And about your favourite writers in the growing phase of your life.

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: Well, I think I was born to serve the literature and poetry. When I opened my eyes, I found there books and magazines all around me in my house because my father Shahab Qazipuri was a veteran poet and writer. Hence, the language and literature were in blood since my childhood.

Literature and poetry are instruments in my view to serve the humanity though my pen and paper. I am a progressive in my writings. I believe that we the writer and poets of the world can bring revolutionary changes in the life of downtrodden and less privileged people. The world has witnessed a paradigm shift after the invention of printing press and now with change of technology our life styles have drastically changed. The literature is a mirror of society and simultaneously an instrument to reform the society. I see that the contemporary sensitivity is must for a visionary poet. I mean, your works must reflect the collective consciousness and style of that particular period in which a poet is leading his life. We grasp the accept the collective psyche of our common geopolitical and environmental that we share rampant around us. If we go through the Sociological study of literature, we can see the life of our legends and their left Heritages.

Indeed, my father has been my role model in poetry and I have been very fascinated to his prose poems. His prose poetry was splendid. Later on, I was influenced by the work of John Done, Milton, Lord Tennyson, Shakespeare, the Big Six of Romantic Movement and T S Elliot in poetry. Apart from this, I have been greatly influenced by Mirza Ghalib, Sir Muhammad Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In my most favourite poets from the world literature, I like Persian poets Sheikh Sadi, Umar Khayyam and Jalal Uddin Rumi. As far as the American literature is concerned, Ezra Pound, Rudyard Kipling and Robert Frost have been my all-time favourite poets. I like the poems “Ode to Nightingale” by John Keats, “Miles to go before I sleep” and “The Road Less Traveled By” of Robert Frost and “In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound have been my all-time favourites.

NILAVRONILL: I think living together with a particular language is very much essential in writing poems in any particular language. And this experience makes a poet more mature in his or her literary writings. I would like to know your own experiences, especially when you write both in your own language and in a foreign language such as English.

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: Well, first of all I would like to share with you that India is a peculiar country because it is multilingual and multiracial country. We have more than one sources of traditional knowledge and wisdoms. Our provinces are constituted on the basis their regional languages and spoken dialects. We have Hindi as our National language. Apart from this we have been a British Colony till the last century. Hence, English is our connecting and working language to which connects north and south including North-east states. I have learned Urdu as my mother tongue, Hindi as the National language, English as a third language, Persian as an extra language which is considered essential to polish and refine your mother tongue viz Urdu. It is admitted that many genres have come in Urdu from the Persian literature. I have learned Arabic in my childhood because our Quran is in Arabic language. We were aware of traditional literature of Arabia, Sanskrit and Persian as their epics are very common in India.

NILAVRONILL: Our Indian subcontinent had a colonial past. We too are the product of this colonial legacy through our education, social upbringings and political cultures. Consciously or even unconsciously most of our literary works bear this marks either explicitly or implicitly. I would like to know your own experience on this matter, in respect of your own literary works.

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: Yes, it is true. My professor Perin C. Mehta was a British. She was a founder Principal of Jamshedpur Women’s College. She has taught us poetry with the help of Globe, Atlas and the books of History of English Literature. Her teaching style was unique and different from the conventional teaching style and approaches of Indian professors. We have learned how to study from her unique style of reciting and explanations of poems through an unconventional method. She always used to say us "live like a living being." She wanted that we do not wear the same clothes for two days continuously. We should wear a fresh dress everyday. We should shave daily and keep ourselves neat and clean always. She has taught us Shakespeare's tragic drama 'Othello' so impressively that no other professor could do it. She always starts with the explanation of cultural and geographical background of any piece of art, which was supposed to cover during her teaching. I have learned the style of creative writing from her and the style of how to read a poem or drama with utmost effective manners and so on. Since we are colonial brother, we can understand the great impact on the modern education system. Our Indian syllabi also have been under the great influence of British education system. Indian English poetry has still under the influence of British and Colonial education system.

NILAVRONILL: Is it possible to put into the words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: I believe that the great poets are always keep themselves ahead of their time and era. They are the torchbearers of their societies and civilisations, as for example Mirza Ghalib, Kali Das, Rumi and Shakespeare, and so on. They are considered to be taller than their contemporary poets because they do the things differently. All great poets create their own language or diction to convey their unique thoughts to common people. They are like shepherd who can see farther and faster than their cattle.

My personal experience is that practice makes a man perfect. I have studied a number of great poets of English, Urdu, Persian and Arabic. I have taken parts into many such activities since the age of my college. I have read many books of literary criticism as well. I believe, that every thought brings its own format and language. Whenever I sit to compose a poem, the form and style come automatically with it. Now, I find my style and diction are different from the contemporary poets which make my poems distinguished signature in the literary world of my time.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think the primary obligation of a poet should be to communicate with the temporal as well as with the eternal essence of life and the universe? If so, how can one fulfil that particular obligation?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: See, inquisitions are a must to any philosophical poet. All the great poets of the world have been pondering over the relation between human being and the universe. I also think about who is the creator of this vast universe and the galaxies which are beyond the access of human intellect. I myself has written poems about “Mirror of Time” and “Space”, wherein I have shown that in context of the span of a Universe a human life is less than even a smallest particle of the sand, which is lying there in desserts from millions of years. We human beings are mortal our bodies are temporal but our good deeds make us immortal. A work of love is joy forever like Taj Mahal. The art of beauty makes us eternal mark in the history of the world. There is some system by which this universe is established. We as poets can aware through our poetry to search that set rules by this world over is maintained and follow the same in our life and cosmos where from we get energy to grow and lead our day-to-day life.

NILAVRONILL: It is an established fact that every poet should create his or her own poetic language as an unique literary signature that would eventually keep him or her alive beyond his or her time. I would like to know your personal experience in this regard, and how can one achieve that unique literary language in his or her lifetime?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: I believe that the great poets are always keep themselves ahead of their age and era. They are the torchbearers of their societies and civilisations. They are considered to be taller than their contemporary poets because they do the things differently. All great poets create their own language or diction to convey their unique thoughts to common people. They are like shepherd who can see farther and faster than their cattle. My personal experience is that practice makes a man perfect. I have studied a number of great poets of English, Urdu, Persian and Arabic. I have taken parts into many such activities since the age of my college. I have read many books of literary criticism as well. I believe, that every thought brings its own format and language. Whenever I sit to compose a poem, the form and style come automatically with it. Now, I find my style and diction are different from the contemporary poets which make my poems a distinguished signature in the literary world of my time.

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literary criticism has much to do with the development of a poet and the true understanding of his or her poetry?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: Yes, I agree that criticism is essential for a good creative work. The critical thinking go with the art work since its inception. We are human beings are critics, because we express our good or bad feeling with our liking and or disliking. Even a new born baby cries when she feels hungry and expresses her views about her bad feeling. A healthy criticism is always welcome. It helps a poet to sharpen his/her craftsmanship to make one’s work more effective and useful to the society. The criticism makes us mature in our skill and craftsmanship. Apart from this, a criticism helps us to understand the work of great poets in a more effective manner. A critic to me is as a leader of artist, who guide us how to go ahead and prepare beforehand to tackle all the hurdles which are supposed to come in the way of a masterpiece. A critic makes the study of our epics of past easy and facilitate us to understand it better. Thus, of course, I think literary criticism has much to do with the development of a poet and the true understanding of his or her poetry.

NILAVRONILL: Literature encompasses every aspect of life; it blends the various shades and textures of human aspirations as well as drawbacks. It also lights up the new horizons and new dimensions of human capabilities relentlessly. I would like to know your particular viewpoints; how do you relate all these in your own writings?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: I am a multidimensional writer. My writing has been changing as per my academic growth and experiences. Fundamentally, my writing comprises on short stories, poems and children’s stories. Well, as a writer and a poet my role changes according to my target readers. If I write for children, the purpose of my writing is to inculcate the reading habits among them and promote good human values into them to make them rule abiding good citizens and ultimately good human beings. Furthermore, if I write stories for my adult readers, I try to make them aware about the rampant evils of the society and try to give them idea to eradicate these evils from the society, as for example the poverty, illiteracy, superstitions, drugs and crimes. I would rather try to make them understand about to be a better citizens and good neighbours by their behaviour and interaction with the society. We are combating with wars also which needs to be stopped as soon as possible. As far as my poetry is concerned, I try to express my inquisitions about helplessness human beings before unfathomable vastness of the universe. I try to share my notion of love and mysticism, the relation between man and God. What is the purpose of being a human. There are infinite topics from piles of garbage to the galaxy about whom a poet can express his views. I am also such a poet; therefore, my stories and poems encompass all such sorts of themes with full depth of my knowledge, intelligence, vision, sensitivity and observations of reality whichever have come across me and my life.

NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be the goal of a poet to enlightens the readers towards a much greater apprehensions of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul? Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: Yes, I agree with the first part of your question. I think the function of poetry is to enlighten the readers toward a much greater apprehension of life and eternity in general. However, in return poets get consoles of their heart and soul, as well. Literary activity including poetry is also, indeed, a social activity, which needs to be socially useful to its end users. Poetry is an intellectual product and the consumers have right to purchase only those items which are beneficial and advantageous to them, because they spend their valuable time and money on such products. Literature is considered to be such a subject matter, which strives to convert us in better human beings. I personally feel literature can enlighten our wisdom and uplift our conscience. The poets can bring revolution in the life of a nation. Even our contemporary world which is the witness of hatreds and wars, poet can create a favourable public opinion against the war, hatred and violence by uniting the people from across the world provided that the poetry must act as a catalyst to augment the spirit of right knowledge and philosophy to expand the horizon of mind and console the heart of the readers.

NILAVRONILL: How would you evaluate your contemporaries and what are your aspirations for or expectation from the younger generation?

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: I would evaluate the work of my contemporary poets to focus on global issues. They must rise above from individual isolation to address global crises, including international conflicts, turmoil, and wars. They must take an active part in social responsibility to remove violence and hatred from society. The poets should not use poetry solely for personal emotional release. They must treat literature as a functional, social tool that provides genuine value to the readers. A poet’s true success lies in their ability to actively counter hatred and violence by cultivating a united, compassionate global public opinion. As we all know that aspirations for the younger generation acts as a philosophical catalyst. Thus, younger poets must ensure their work serves to expand human knowledge and build deeper philosophical understanding. The youth should write with the primary intent of expanding the reader’s mental horizon, comforting their heart, and helping them become better human beings. The next generation must wield literature as a revolutionary force capable of transforming societal mind-sets and uniting divided communities across the globe.

NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview. I remain obliged to you for your participation. Thank you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.

PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR: It was a pleasure to me, my dear friend and hon’ble global poet NilavroNill. After speaking with you, I am even more confident that my background in poetry, short story and children’s story would allow me to make a positive impact here. I look forward to hearing from your millions of poetry and story loving followers and avid readers of Our Poetry Archive.

 

 

Dr. PERWAIZ SHAHARYAR is a Consultant Editor in National Council of Educational Research and Training, NCERT, Ministry of Education, Government of India. He had been Principal Publication Officer in National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language in 2007. He has been, a member of Advisory Board of National Book Trust India. He has been a Member of Advisory Board of National Book Trust India, several times Jury Member of Awards Committee of Sahitya Akademi New Delhi and a Jury Member of International Doha Qatar Award Committee of India and nominated Member of Management Committee of Skill Development of Teachers Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He is a Multilingual (English, Hindi and Urdu) famous poet, short story writer and critic from India. He is a Graduate with English Honors from Ranchi University. He has topped Jawaharlal Nehru University in Masters with Literature. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy for his Research Work from University of Delhi. He is a Post Graduate Diploma holder in Calligraphy, Mass Media and in Book Publishing with Specialization in Editing. Dr. Perwaiz Shaharyar has begun writing his poems in English since lockdown in the period of Pandemic COVID-19. He has written around 150 poems, participated in many worldwide online poets meets and published in various international anthologies, so far. His more than two dozen poems have been translated by many award-winning litterateurs in Polish, Indonesian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Albania languages. His poems are being published in several magazines within country and abroad. His poem ‘The Burning Boat’ contains mystic (Sufism) and metaphysical elements. He has bagged many States and National Awards and accolades for his literary works. His around 200 articles and research papers have been published in reputed national and international literary journals and periodicals. He has total 22 published books, 3 each of collections of short stories and collections of poems, 5 books of criticism and 4 books of translation from other languages in his credential. His one children story book has been published by a premier organization National Book Trust, India. He has translated 12 books of Children’s Literature in Workshop mode for NBT, India, so far.  His 2 books on children’s stories were published from most prestigious publication houses of India. Furthermore, his anthology of 40 selected poems entitled “The Burning Boat” was published in November 2025, by Book Leaf Publishing, India, USA, UK. This book is Winner of the 21^st Century Emily Dickson Award.