Interview by Prof Dr Shiv Sethi
Get ready to meet the extraordinary Dr. Shadab Ahmed, a true gem of a person whose story is sure to inspire and impress you! This charismatic man hails from a remote nondescript corner of Bihar, India, but has lived in various parts of the country, including the magical and resilient North-East India, cosmopolitan New Delhi, vibrant Gujarat and rustic Tamil Nadu. An extra-academic scholar of Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Castilian literature, Dr. Ahmed has translated, paraphrased, transliterated, composed, edited and published numerous books on inter-personal & belletrist poetry. His book reviews and verses appear in major intercontinental poetry and literature journals. But Dr. Ahmed is not just a prolific writer, he is also an accomplished Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon by profession, and serves as the “Ranking & Accreditation Officer” to Vinayaka Mission’s Sankarachariyar Dental College, Salem, Tamil Nadu – apart from being an Associate Professor (Reader) in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the same institution. Here are the excerpts of our conversation with the author.
Ques 1 – When and how did you become interested in writing poetries?
Answer – Since my adolescent years, I developed a profound and maniac passion for reading trans-continental literatures. Narrowing it down over the years and comprehending that no one can attain complete knowledge in the limited life span we have as human beings, I narrowed it down to Poetry. Since then, composing and translating Poetry has been both my recreation and diversion from this insane chaotic world we live in. So much so, my perception & outlook has adapted over it. Stricto sensu, I find explicit words in arbitrary observations which most people will attribute to inexplicit randomness. My submerged mind keeps making climacteric observations all through the commotions by the day, and the panorama of the silent night develops those implicit annotations the mind has made, extrapolating them in words. The words combine to form sentences. The sentences get rearranged to rhyme versified. The verses together form a narrative.
Ques 2 – How long does it take you to complete a book?
Answer – I write in complete solitude and withdrawal, and frequently people interpret my peculiar behaviour as being misanthropic and reclusive. One aspect to understand here is that there is a misconception that writing or composing can be done anytime, anywhere. To write and compose, you need the writer’s temperament and frame of mind, and it is the sine qua non. It is a complex thing to describe succulently in words. For a brief period of time, your subconscious individuality and psyche get altered, and your pneuma is diffused into the characters you are trying to develop. You blend with them, and they create the narrative which your hand pens down subliminally. It takes almost 6-9 months of dedicated time to finish a project, before the typesetting commences.
Ques 3 – Who are your target readers?
Answer – My target reader is a person who loves the “book”, irrespective of being authorial or critical. The ideal reader comes from diverse socio-economic-political background, nationality and faith. I have got warm and sultry reviews from strangers and friends alike, both nationally and internationally. In their expressed cordial words, my raison d’etre is complete.
Ques 4 – What apart from reading and writing poetries interests you?
Answer – Apart from reading and writing, I am passionate about dietary sustenance and subsistence, Dipsomania and Biophilia. I don’t eat for abject desideratum, but rather enjoy the gastronomic enchant. My eating habits and choices are varied as such. I also keep a refined and distilled taste for everything refined and distilled.
Ques 5 – Any messages for your readers?
Answer – I just want my readers to be happy and content, wherever they are based. I will ask them to live, not to just mere survive. Follow your heart, follow your passions. Be a good and compassionate human being. Live old or live young, but make sure to live free!
“I write in complete solitude and withdrawal,” says Dr. Shadab Ahmed.
