This Delhi designer serenades verses like he does silhouettes

Phir bhi, aadmi koshish karta hai, ghista rehta hai, seelan mein bheegi kissi maachis ki tilliyon ki tarah, rishto ko — naa jaane kaunsi jal jaaye, naa jaane kiss kone mein koyi aag bachee hai..”

These are words by Pranav Mishra, the 32-year-old, also the co-founder of fashion label Huemn. He has been writing since his school days in Lucknow. “This is the brutal me. When you talk about fashion, you also take your consumer in mind. You are developing a product you are trying to sell. Of course, it has my design philosophy involved. But, when it comes to writing, it’s all me...it’s a relief.”

The ‘other’ side of Mishra will manifest itself at a poetry reading in Delhi on Wednesday. His writing process? “I don’t like to romanticise the idea of living life. I can only write when I am surrounded by chaos. I listen to loud music, and I don’t give my brain the time to process what I am thinking.” And, how does he balance these two creative sides? “When I am working on design, I can’t write. I am already approaching a (fashion) show and there’s a lot happening. These are parallel lives that I have. I am into marketing when it comes to fashion...I like to sell it. I take deep interest in campaign and image creation. But, when it comes to poetry, I don’t like to talk too much of the process,” he says. Mishra counts Charles Bukowski and his work, Like A Flower In The Rain, monumental in his work. “It changed my life a lot, because of the brutality of the thought. There’s no filter, no fear of people judging you or finding out your insecurities.” Poet Jaun Elia and Ernest Hemingway also made an impact. “I don’t want my writing to be surreal. I don’t even like to call it poetry.”