( A conversation between Sibi Zachrias and Sidharth P K- Poet/ Writer)
A Writer speaks his world and struggles (Sidharth P K- Kerala)
- Tell us, how your passion turned you into a poet?
Reply: Well, I have to tell my viewers that, when I was a 12yr old kid in school, my mother encouraged me to read books instead of roaming around and playing fights. They promoted me to squabble something, some sentences or lines. But actually I don’t remember what did I write first, in the beginning. Mother always had a passion for literature, she loved poetry and used to write short lines, while she was in college. I even discovered mother’s old diary which is filled with small poems. That discovery further motivated and pushed me into the world of imagination. I don’t know whether my mother dreamed to become a writer but now as a son I am fulfilling her dream.
- When did you realize, that in your heart, a poet is sleeping?
Reply: A man becomes a poet or artist through his experience, through his emotional life. A poet is a self-made, writing comes out from my soul. I came to know my talent while reading legends like Lord Byron, Keats, Pablo Neruda. Slowly I started know myself, when I touch my pen with paper, I forget everything, my past, my future and the struggles. I become a part of something in true Paulo Chelo’s sense of Universe. I observed and studied the great poets of our civilizational ranging from ancient Sappho’s to present criticism of T S Elliot.
- When did your first publication dream come true, who helped with it?
Reply: My first poems were inspired from nothing, as I too small child to decode and learn the big things of life. My mother always was there to read, sometimes she corrected my earlies poems. Even she made meagre attempts to publish them, but that was a vain. I had to switch my stream to the humanities, studying history, sociology, literature. My fortune changed I have to tell, as the great unexpected meeting with our school’s English teacher FR. Thomson. He knew me very much, then anyone before. He asked me to read classics of Tolstoy, DH Lawrence. FR. Thomson’s contribution in making, shaping my writing world is immense. The chance and dream came true in 2018, when I my first poem got a place in the local edition of Deccan Chronicle. The poem called “Why Parted Thee so Early”? was published and that was the beginning. The publication victory after 10 long years of awaiting, made my structure of realty.
- Can you tell which poem had inspired you the most, also the favorite poem you have written?
Reply: The second question is a difficult dilemma, as I have written more than 400 poems, so I can’t do injustice to my other poems, even if I mention my special. In my early days as budding writer, I admired the myth that surfaced Lord Byron. His famous lyrical verse “She Walks in Beauty”, is my most touching poem that I have so far known. Byronic hero is a unique, moody element that forecasts the romantic dreams and love. I also have equal taste for Chile’s Neruda’s surrealism. Bram Stoker’s perennial classic “The Dracula” is a creepy but it is a great literature, with it’s fabulous imagery, glow and blood that’s being so beautifully depicted by the master creator.
- Tell us, something about your first book, how did it happen?
Reply: The idea of collecting all my previously unpublished works and making it in the form of a full length book, a special gratitude to the evocative mind of FR.Thomson. He advised me to take up the onerous task of compiling my contents and forming a book. My mother helped me in proof reading my poems, and made her own valuable suggestions. So my first book “The Soulful Melodies” was dramatically published on 2020, August. It was a compilation of 30 poems on various themes, close attention paid to romance and unfulfilled love.
- You have already stated that a poet grows through experience, how much experience you have in the field of love?
Reply: (lauding), Well, I have ne’er got the opportunity to fall in amazing love with anyone. I call it amazing, because falling in love, is truly defined as most memorable, sweetest experiences that man can have. I am an inspired poet and much experience in reality I really lacks. I have experienced real love, even though school love stories, college chores I have witnessed. But it was only a culture of the campus. And I respect the trend. Experimenting love is not at all required one to become a writer or poet, to fire the imagination at all. As I. myself is the best example I look up to.
- What are your other ambitions, apart from writing?
Reply: As late President Abdul Kalam’s definition of dreams is the best example. All human beings have some sort of dreams or wishes. At present, my mind has gone through an epoch-making effect in redefining myself and my art as well, I love to share my dreams through my poems only. My poem is the spur to the far unexplored world of macabre and longing.
- Finally, what message you wish to tell our readers, any hint on the world around?
Reply: I don’t believe in any type of pre-conceived notions or anything. Writing is a blessings and equally a boon from the goddess whom I consider as my own goddess. Well, a simple answer is insufficient to it, so I wish to believe in the world, the world you don’t care about, doesn’t wants to listen to you until you dream, you achieve.
(1998) Sidharth PK – a conversation with the emerging writer from Kerala, who has published 12 books along with numerous other artistic creations. A new voice in the literary world, delved deep in romance and adventure. The young author is a post graduate in History and resides in Kochi.
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